sals

Signposted from Trilla, this looks on the map as though you could get to it from the lake but we’d driven that way, and didn’t spot anything that looked un-gated and passable .....
It’s quite a way by track from the village – there were may points when we wondered if it was advisable to challenge the hire car – but the dolmen signs appeared every so often, and eventually after a 90 degree bend where the fields opened out, we found the dolmen tucked in a little copse.
A breezy spot, with quality graffiti and an intriguing view towards the Pic de Bugarach – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pic_de_Bugarach

South of the pretty village of Ansignan (with a stunning viaduct across the fields) and west of barrage sur L’Agly (lake, or reservoir) is the hilltop commune of Trilla with two dolmens. As you drive up the hill, and before the village, this is signposted off to the left along a rough track. The little hire car bumped along a way, then we came to a fork in the road with a no entry sign on the higher track, but handily a “Dolmen” sign for the lower one, and there was just enough room to park – but not much room to turn, small cars only!

Not much more than 100m along, another sign pointed up to the right and a few rough hewn steps led up to the dolmen.

It’s a wide and low construction, with a capstone of maybe 1.5m by 2.5m.

I thought it was going to be good, but this site still took my breath away (and I don’t mean from the climb up to it) and made an instant jump into my “top 10” (dolmens, I can’t judge site types against each other).
If you are visiting the stunning Grotte de Niaux, this is only 15 mins or so away ....

South of Niaux, head to the village of Vicdessos. Don’t cross the bridge into the village itself – head straight on and up. (The village is lovely, by the way, with a town square complete with bandstand and bunting, and a couple of picnic benches along the riverside.) This road has been used as part of the Pyrenean stages of the Tour de France .... hence steep in places with switchback turns! The dolmen is sightposted from Vicdessos, and there’s enough room for a couple of small cars to park at the bottom of the track that leads to it.

There are some uneven steps and potentially a bit of a scramble to get to the top – but wow. And wow again.

A substantial chunk of glacial granite, in the most stunning spot, with views over snowcapped mountains in France, Andorra and Spain.

A stunning spot! There’s plenty of parking just opposite the cave, and the day we were there, there were people bungee jumping from the outcrop.
The footpath into the cave takes you to the visitors’ centre, a strange contrast between hot sunshine with birdsong, into the cool with the roar of the water almost dizzy-making.
The link has details of the visit – as the cave art here is not visible to the public, we just chilled out on the grass for a while.
A great picnic spot for a day out in this area – there’s plenty to see!
Oh – and the road to the town actually goes through the cave too .....

Situated south of, and well signposted from, Tarascon-sur-Ariège, up a single track lane from the village of Niaux. Try not to meet a coach coming up on the way back down, as we did – it was a rather long reverse to get back to the car park for passing purposes!
We had pre-booked, and almost all of those who turned up “on spec” for the only English tour that day were turned away. The visitors’ centre is not open all the time (shop and tickets) but the first floor had an open air exhibition of the history of the cave (boards all in French) and of cave paintings of the era across Europe. There are also public toilets hidden behind the shop.
We arrived a bit before our tour time, to take in the spectacular view, and also to do a quick change – stout walking footwear is essential, and we had be also advised to wear warm clothes.
Please note – there is no photography, or light other than the torches supplied, allowed in the cave.
Our guide explained the cave system and which bits are accessible – the tour is basically to the Salon Noir (Black Chamber) as other parts of the system are beyond underground lakes.
The caves had been known about by locals for a significant time – graffitti (rather elegant script!) has been dated back to 1602 – but their importance and age only recognised in the late 18C. There are dot-and-dash finger paintings before the Salon Noir, but the main images are all found along one side of the salon. And they are incredible! Analysis of the drawings shows that crude brushes were used for some, and the drawings were made without hesitancy – just amazing for art that has been carbon dated to 14,000 years old, that’s late in the last ice age!
The majority of the images are horses, bison and ibex. The cave’s unique item – a stoat – is past a lake and hence not part of the tour.
Tour time – over an hour. The cave floor is wet and slippery in places, you have to duck and negotiate a couple of narrow passages, and there’s a climb up a sand dune – so for adults of reasonable mobility.
Highly recommended!

Visited 26 Sept 2012.

West of Ronda, marked on most road maps and easily located with a big sign from the road to a parking area with info boards.

A series of uneven and slippery-when-wet stone steps lead from the car park up to the cave entrance and ticket hut (which also serves drinks in season), where there is a covered waiting area. The entrance fee varies by total group size – 8 euros pp reducing to 7 if there are more than 15 people on a tour. The maximum tour size is 25.

By 4pm, a group of 20 or so had gathered and the entrance was unlocked so we could all move into a foyer area, where the guide lit and distributed battery lanterns for the visitors, and filled his paraffin lamp. I had a small head torch which came in handy, though your own torch is far from essential. The tour was mainly in Spanish with a few words of English added; one of the other visitors was leading a group of Scandinavian and German tourists, and he kindly translated a fair amount of info into multiple languages for everyone.

The tour lasts just over an hour, progressing through the cave system looking at the rock formations, explaining history and discovery, with fabulous cave paintings along the way. The end point is the painting of a huge fish .... then a faster walk back along the same route to the entrance.

There are lots of steps within the caves, so I would recommend to reasonably sure-footed visitors. On the way back, we crossed with the next tour starting .... which included family groups, one with children of around 2 and 5 years, and another with screaming baby in papoose .... the latter changed their minds and left .... it’s really not a visit for little ones imo.

Please note – no photography past the entrance area, you will be asked to leave if you try to sneak a few shots. This may be to keep the light levels reasonably constant, but also repeated camera flashes would have ruined the ambience of the visit.

258 menhirs in 7 groups, in a glorious setting. It’s about 1.3km from the road to the alignment, along a wide but rutted track with a reasonably sharp climb to start. We weren’t entirely sure of the location and there was a fair bit of “are you sure ...” on the way, but so glad we trusted out instincts and spent a very pleasant couple of hours exploring the stones, chilling out under the magnificent oak tree, and trying to find the 3 carved stones we’d read about.

It’s huge! Almost on the scale as Sa Coveccada
across the water in Sardinia. The sign specifies the capstone as 3.4m x 2.9m, and it’s tall enough to stand up inside.

A stunning spot! Dozens of menhirs in a copse, explored in dappled sunlight. A confusion of rows, some dating to around 5000 BCE. In a gated area, but with full access allowing witnessed stone hugging.

Two rows of stones running N-S with some great examples of carved swords and faces.
Picture taken in May – the wild grass and flowers are lovely but do hide some of the carving.
Fenced in, but only a few metres away.

A site group consisting of the alignments of Stantari and Renaju, and the fabulous dolmen Cauria Fontanaccia. The location given is the beginning of the track to the group, and there is space to park here. Free and open access, no facilities.
Well worth spending a few hours here! It’s about 500m from the track / car park to Stantari.

Corsica’s “show site” and signposted from miles and miles away (erratically, of course!).
Entrance fee, gift shop, museum, refreshments etc.
A path from the entrance gate takes you past the museum to a paved square where Filitosa V (3m tall, fabulously carved) has been re-erected. There’s a boundary wall before the main part of the site, with a barrow to the left and the central monument ahead. Now, we’d become aware of new age twinkly pan-pipe type music as we entered the complex, and thought it was coming from the museum – but no, piped all round the site. And this was not the only unwelcome modern feature – rather than having info boards placed at a distance from the important features of the complex, there are metal obelisks set in concrete providing audio on demand in a variety of languages. Oh!
The official website gives a good description of the site, so I won’t ...
Crossing the stream, the muzak was finally drowned out by the croaking of frogs and the speakers had not been continued on the other side where 5 impressive stones have been re-sited, with a quarry beyond.
Phallic stones – 10/10
Atmosphere – 2/10
Take earplugs or your own audio distraction to enjoy the complex fully!

Northwest of the groups of tombs so visible from the access track, and in line with the field boundary, this tomb is just to the right of the path.
A short dromos, into a chamber with a central pillar and a niche opposite the entrance, and then two doors to the right. Climbing through, you’re on a little rocky platform and the ground slopes away towards 4 doors set up from floor level and with a magnificent step to reach the farthest to the left, and a further chamber beyond the second left.
Something about this made me think of the fantastic Hal Saflieni Hypogeum on Malta – but on a much smaller scale of course. I spent what seemed like ages just sat enjoying the cool and the calm and the shafts of sunlight illuminating the entrance.
As in Tomb XVI a twice trepanned skull (image linked) was found here – though this person was not so lucky .... they didn’t survive the second operation.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found the plan of this tomb .....
The long dromos or corridor was partly flooded so I’d climbed down into in it where it narrows, and straight in to the main chamber (pictured) with doors at the centre of each of the walls. I’d also noted a chamber to the side of its antichamber, but didn’t realise quite how extensive either part was. Take a look at the plan!

One of the most important tombs at this site, and we didn’t find it. It’s in the area of scrubby vegetation between the very visible tombs such as Tomb VIII and the buildings you pass on the track to get here – hence the grid reference is not absolutely accurate.
It was found still sealed with a slab, and finds included burials from around 2000BCE (though other finds have been noted from the much ealier Ozieri culture) and a twice trepanned skull.

This holy well is right in the centre of Perfugas, next to the church. It was discovered in 1923, and named after the owner of the garden it occupies.

The area around has been partly excavated, but it’s the well itself that’s the shining star in white limestone. There’s a passageway and then steps down into the well chamber with its perfectly circular cross section.

It’s fenced off and locked! I enquired at the library on the corner about a key, and was directed to the museum and tourist information .... right at the far end of town on a scorching hot day. When we got there – shut!

We’d been to the village of Rebeccu 18 months previously, just after visiting the nearby domus de janas Sant’ Andrea Priu and not found this, but we had better instructions this time ...

Drive into the village and park in the main square. Exit the main square on foot opposite the way you came in, and follow the path which bends to the right, leaving the village, and Snow White and the 7 Dwarves (no kidding, a full set of gnomes adorn the house on the way) to your right, with open fields falling away to the left. Another path from the village joins from the right, and less than 100m later, there’s a track to the left with a signpost “Fonte”.

The path was being cleared for the summer, and we exchanged greetings with 4 groups of men, scythes in hand but all taking breaks, on the way. About 150m along, there’s a tiny wooden bridge, and the font is up on the right.

An incredibly verdant setting! If not for the grass cutters, we’d have had to wade through chest high greenery to get here!

The Nuraghic font itself is a tholos style chamber; water flows along a groove through the entrance hatch (about 60cm square) in the basalt block frontage and zigzags along the entrance hallway (about 5m long) and drains away under a paving slab at the end.

On the main road, right in the centre of Sedini, the tombs are cut into a massive 12m limestone block. Dated to around 3000BCE, in more recent times it’s been used as a jail, but now houses a museum (apparently – siesta time, all quiet and closed up when we were there).

A slight accidental detour took us through Padria, and in the village we spotted one of the brown signs directing us to an archaelogical area.

Follow the signs – part way along, there’s a huge map at the roadside of areas of interest in the vicinity – and right at the end of the road there’s a gate on the left with a path and steps climbing the hill.

On the plateau, there are nuraghic village huts – hard to work out in the long grass – and the nuraghe itself is to the left behind a tree. It doesn’t look that impressive ..... till you get round the other side!

On the SS292 south of Villanova Monteleone, with great views towards Lago de Temo.

It was 2pm on a gloriously hot day; the site is fenced off and a recently adapted notice said that it would open at 14:30, so we sat in the car park and had a picnic, and read. And waited. No sign of anyone, we waited another 10 mins and then decided to wait no longer. Beardy took the direct route of over the tall padlocked gates, and I went for the walk along the drystone wall between the barbed wire approach. For future reference, the easiest method if needed is the exit I used – under the tree at the corner of the road and carpark!

The entrance fee is 1½ euros, and we left sufficient coins on a stone by the ticket hut, in case someone appeared ...

There are 9 tombs here, set into two outcrops of rock, of which the most interesting is no 8, with its main chamber (through an anti chamber) having a ceiling carved to represent a roof and rafters, and a false door to the afterlife. The tombs mainly have double framed entrances and cups in the floor of the anti-chambers for offerings, and grooves which I assumed where for drainage.

Admittedly, we’d missed some carvings (other than the architectural features) here, but for a signposted, pay to enter site, I was a little disappointed, compared to what we’d seen already (and without knowing where our next stop would be, the fabulous Santu Pedru).

We’d driven north through Putifigari in search of Laccaneddu tomba di gigante (in vain, with poor babelfished directions and no signposting) and had planned to head for a beach and relax, but chief navigator Beardy spotted this on one of my bits of mapping and announced it was right on the road, on the way back.

Heading west towards Olmedo on the 127bis, there’s a sign for this site about 400m before it, at a right turn. Don’t turn right, but watch out for the layby contained within the slip roads of the junction as it’s probably the best place to park.

Tomb 1 really is right up against the road.

A 16m corridor first – with a metal gate padlocked across the entrance, but someone had already bent back one of the bars and we were able to squeeze into the anti chamber with an impressive entrance to the main part of the tomb. Apparently discovered by chance 1959, still sealed by the stone slabs of the Bonnanaro culture circa 1600BCE.

I donned my headtorch and climbed in ....

The first room has two massive pillars supporting it, and a false door carved into the wall immediately facing the entrance. It’s huge .... and dark! The torch wasn’t thowing out much light at all, so I had to rely on the trusty method of flash photography and was immediately spooked by the shape on the right hand wall. The walls are painted in blood coloured ochre with carved doors, but I looked for the bulls horns mentioned in one set of research notes in vain.

A series of rooms lead off this main chamber, with their doors set maybe 3ft high in the walls. With limited light, I didn’t climb in but have included a link to a diagram of the whole layout.

So, some not so dainty wiggling back through the main entrance and the bent gate, to explore the slopes of the hill ....

There are another 8 tombs up here!

The entrance area to one was flooded with thousands of tadpoles in the murky green water, and another was mainly collapsed. Further up though, crawling into a tomb revealed another huge double pillared room with chambers off it. Even though I’d been warned there was one in there, I couldn’t help but shriek as the resident bat swooped past me .....

Oh my! Wow! It took a while for us to find this place, we’d been trying to get to it from the wrong road.

Easiest – from Monte D’Accoddi, you are forced to turn south along the 131 towards Sassari (and it should be noted, there are two bits of 131 round here, you want the east branch to find the altar). At the first opportunity, turn back on yourself, pass the entrance to Monte D’Accoddi again, and straight on at the next side turns – you’ll see a Q8 petrol station on the other carriageway and then 24km marker just before a large cluster of dilapidated buildings. Turn right (obviously!) here and choose the left hand one of the two tracks in front of you and drive to the end at the back of some houses.

The tombs start right at the edge of the track and continue across the scrub land between the fields. I’d seen a couple of images online and knew I had to visit, but wasn’t expecting quite what was found ..... and further research reveals more we missed too!

The site has incredibly deep cart ruts – like those found on Malta for example at Clapham Junction – running across it.

Mystery solved!

Having located its neighbour, it would have been rude to pass only a few km from Li Mizzani and we were feeling still in need of a good tomba having spent most of the week exploring domus je janas (groups of rock cut tombs).

The site had been so busy on our previous visit, we weren’t surprised to see a few cars parked along the fence. We wandered in, to find just 4 people there, and in a combination of Italian, German and English, struck up conversation, and were fed delicious local cheese for our efforts. Cheers, Salvatore!

A couple of A4 laminates hung in the tree confirmed – the magnetic energy here is being used for natural healing!

I’m not sure about the claims that it can cure glaucoma and infertility, amongst other things, but this certainly is a beautiful place with a definite charm. I’ll be back again.

Follow the directions to Li Mizzani, but at the fork in the road where you turn left for that now signposted site, go right following signs to a church instead. Keep going, not far past the path to the church and 2.2km from the turn, you’ll find an old wooden ladder and a more modern white metal one to help you climb over the dry stone wall under a tree on the right, with a fallen info board.
There’s more than a tomba here!
A fallen menhir, the remains of a round building and a more recent rectangular building too.
The tomba itself ... sadly ruinous; there’s no stele, no funeral corridor, all that remains is the esedra and that’s quite overgrown. You could almost miss it while standing in front of it.
One for completists – we’d driven part way down the road 18 months before and not found this site, so I’d been determined to see what was there ....

A short distance north east of the pretty fishing village of Marsaxlokk is Tas-Silg temple. I knew it wasn’t officially open to the public, but decided to go and take a look anyway. The site has a reasonably tall wall round it, and the gates are chunks of solid metal. Nothing to see here, without an appointment!

For directions and facilities, see Bois de la Plesse north.

This is the better preserved of the two allées here, but still has no capstones remaining. The side stones mark out a chamber about 7m long and 1m high. Its eastern end entrance has a row of 8 stones forming a facade reminiscent of the tomba di gigante on Sardinia.

The site was excavated in 1966/7.

The area around, and the field beyond, are littered with stones, maybe originally from this monument or its near neighbour.

From the D903 less than 1km west of Lithaire, there’s a road south, with a signpost advertising paintballing and other leisure pursuits; continue for 1km straight ahead, and you’ll find a parking area to the left with map boards and a toilet block to the right.

Taking the track between these two, there’s a kids playground and picnic area, and the path leads to the (filled in quarry) lake, with pedallos on it and some kind of shop/cafe (closed).

From here, it’s a short but steep climb up woodland steps – so not suitable for the less mobile – and a right turn will lead you to the clearing with two allées couverte, this and Bois de la Plesse south.

About 500m in total, car park to site.

The information board mentions 3 allées, only two of which are visible here. The first, northern one, is quite ruinous, with 3 upright stones at its eastern end but other fallen ones showing the length of the chamber to have been about 9m.

At the northern end of the village of the same name is a signpost to this site; it’s 3.4km to the field track, signposted all the way. It’s then about 150m up the track and the monument can then be seen 50m away to the left, in the field.

Our first French allée couverte!

It’s about 20m long, running north-south; there’s an information board with a map of nearby sites on the western side but the east side is overgrown with brambles and the sweetcorn in the field was planted right up to its edge when we were there.

Excavations and restoration were carried out 1968-1971 and finds included pottery and flint tools.

There are 6 huge capstones in place, creating a corridor with a cross section of about 1.5m square.

The nuraghe at Tamuli is on a high point beyond the 3 tombas and the betili. It’s surrounded by huts, the most impressive of these being at the end of the path beyond the nuraghe.

The nuraghe itself, we were warned on the info boards, is unsafe due to landslides, and it has been roped and fenced off.

From the fork in the road, it’s just over 250 metres, and just past a house on the right, to the field the dolmen is in on the left. The signpost was lying in the long grass – Beardy picked it up and put in on the wall – but an info board (a little too weary from the sun to be of much use) confirmed we were in the right place.

No one had been here for a while, from the height of the grass and wild flowers!

It actually took us quite a while to find the dolmen ..... from the road, there’s a narrow strip before the field opens out. From the end of this strip, there are two distinct clumps of trees ahead – go between them and look for a stone kerb on your left. There’s a rocky outcrop at the end of the kerb, and I spotted, buried in the grass, a bright yellow “DOLMEN” sign. Look to your left and you should see the capstone.

From the crossroads, it’s about 800m to the dolmen. You should be able to see it in an enclosure to the right of the road, not long after a 90 degree bend. Just after you think you’ve passed the dolmen, there’s an information board and a gate to the enclosure.

There’s another info board within – shot up! The dolmen itself has 4 supporting stones, though the capstone only appears to rest on 3 of them. The capstone is huge – well over 2ft thick.

Our first tomba of the day, and an unusual one in that is has two pairs of side cells off its corridor. The entrance to the tomba is away from the road, though the back has fallen so you can see right the way through.

The right hand wing of the esedra has been lost in the field; the left side forms part of the field boundary.

The info board showed a tomba in the field directly opposite, but we couldn’t spot it and didn’t investigate too closely as there were numerous dogs barking at us from the farm next door, but as usual no one in sight for us to ask.

From Nuraghe Miuddu, head to the gate where you enter the field and then the corner beyond it. Follow the edge of the field south – there’ll be a hedgerow to your left – and climb the (low) wire fence at the end. Now clamber over the big rocky outcrop to the right. The tomba is on the slope just below and to the right a bit.

Quite ruinous, with a bush growing right in front of the centre of the esedra. There’s one capstone still in place – the views from here are incredible!

If you are heading west on the 129 towards Macomer, this is what you’ll find at the first junction you come across for Birori.

There’s no way in; there are two collapsed small tholos rooms on its south side, so the chances are it’s at least a trilobate if not quadrilobate structure.

There are some village huts visible in the long grass around the nuraghe too.

Wow! Until visiting Santa Cristina I’d not been to any holy wells anywhere, and much as that one had impressed me with its sharp lines, this just, well, words just about fail me to describe how stunning this place is.

Check out the pictures!

The well itself is a tholos construction with steps up – to a long passage guarded by betili, with steps / seats to the left and a bank to the right with a path along the top – and leading on to the most spectactular amphitheatre with banked seating all the way round and a clearing beyond that.

Was water brought to the waiting “congregation”, or was a journey made from the amphitheatre to the well? Which ever way, the passage had an electric sensation about it ....

By far, my favourite place of the trip. I could have spent hours here.

The third temple at Romanzesu is different in that it’s rectangular (you’d never guess from its name!) with its entrance half way along one of its longer sides. It’s in the lower part of the site, in the trees to the right as you head towards the well.

Temple B is of the same construction as Megaron Temple A, and is a short walk up the path behind it. It’s almost surrounded by cork oaks and is right next to a huge rocky outcrop.

The first megaron temple is near the entrance and sacred enclosure. It has a vestibule and then the main room with an L shaped stone bench round 2 walls and a place for offerings. The back walls of the temple are extended, as we saw at Serra Orrios, and the information boards show the structure originally with a steeply pitched roof.

Clearly signposted from the 389 between Bitti and Budduso; there’s a left turn (if heading north) a couple of km north of the junction to/from Nule and Benetutti. Then 3km on single track lane, but actually a reasonable road and signposted all the way.

The site is open 09:00-13:00 and 15:00-19:00 (Sundays 09:30-13:00 and 14:30-19:00) with 3 guided tours run in each half day. Entry is 3.10 euros for adults with various reductions available. The ticket office is the hut on the carpark; we signed the guest book and were lent a plan of and guide to the site. There’d only been one other visitor all day, and unsurprisingly, we had the place to ourselves for the afternoon.

The complex covers 7 hectares, in a beautiful, if rather windy, spot, with cork oaks and clearings with dappled sunlight. About 20 huts are visible, though there are over 100, and there are 3 temple buildings and a sacred well, each listed separately. The grid reference given for the whole site is that of the entrance to it.

Straight in front of you, the first thing you see is the sacred enclosure with a couple of small huts beyond it, and the megaron temples to the right; following the path ahead goes to the main part of the complex, with the rectangular temple and holy well. The other main features here are huts with niches and hearths, and low benches round their interior walls; one hut is unusual in that is has a central dividing wall, and there’s also the “great hut” divided into rooms.

This tomba is right in Birori – it reminded us of the cairn circle at Aviemore for its proximity to the houses.

To find it, go to the centre of the village where, at a cross roads, there’s a couple of shops. Turn to the north; the first, almost immediate, left turn goes into a parking area – we asked directions here – and were told to take the second left instead, and follow the road round. The tomb is signposted from here, with modern development all around. Look for the pink neon hotel sign to help you locate it, if lost.

The grasscutters were out with strimmers in the village, but hadn’t reached the site yet, so we were waist deep in grass at many points.

The tomb is sizeable – approx 17m long and 12m wide; there’s no stele, but the corridor has two side niches opposite each other, a feature that we’d only seen at Lassia nearby. There’s a bench along the front of the esedra, and the walls of the corridor angle in towards each other.

The esedra in particular is easy to see is of double walled construction, with the cavity filled with smaller stones, rubble and earth.

Nuraghe Loelle is at a cross roads; diagonally opposite it, right up against the (minor) road, you’ll find the first tomba di gigante associated with the settlement here.

It’s a tiny little one! Yet impressive. The esedra consists now of 5 stones, pale at the bottom and grey at the top, with a distinct bench along the front as we’d seen at many of sites.

The corridor leads back towards the road, its inner edges well defined but the outer part of the tomb only really visible on its right hand side.

From Loelle I, there’s a track into the woods with a series of stones set upright to mark the way. It’s 215 paces to the second tomb – the grid reference might by slightly off, but the path takes you there. It’s hidden in the trees, and is difficult to photograph!

You approach the rear of the tomb first, but round the front it’s possible to make out at least the left hand wing of the esedra. The corridor is clearly defined with an end stone in place.

By this point in our trip, we were fairly well “nuraghe’d out” and had ignored many over the previous few days. They are everywhere! But this is a curious construction.

It’s built into a rocky outcrop, and there’s a side entrance to a cave underneath.

The main entrance leads to stairs winding round to the right, and reaching the first floor level above the doorway. A second flight goes up to the top, and a passage way ahead leads to a room with two niches in the wall, and then a very impressive second flight of stairs back down again – leading currently nowhere, but possibly a way into the now inaccessible main chamber of the nuraghe.

Climbing to the top gives a great view of the rest of the settlement, and the cows grazing in the field.

On the 389 from Bitti to Budduso, you can’t, and indeed shouldn’t, miss this one.

The site has good information boards and the section further from the road has stone tables and benches, ideal for a picnic.

There’s the remains of round huts around the nuraghe, the nuraghe itself – stunning! – and two tombas to be found here.

There’s a signpost from the main road, and then another one at a bend with a side turn only a few metres later. Then nothing. We drove on, through a flock of sheep across the road, and on, and eventually found someone to ask. He directed us back to Borore instead of his local tomba! A quick U turn, and back through the sheep again. We stopped again at the sign, and turned again, determined to find it. Back through the sheep, but this time we took a side turn to the left and parked just before the stream. The field in front of us had a rocky plateau with some ruined buildings, but not what we were looking for – so we set of up the lane on foot. Beardy went left and I went straight on, and found someone to ask. “Scusi, io non parlo Italiano. Dove è tomba di gigante Uore?” He didn’t know, or I couldn’t understand. So back to the car and back through the sheep.
Now, turn to page 444 of your copy of TME; the middle image is Uore. Now located by the power of Wikimaps. We should have been on the other side of the road, but only metres away. Pah!

There’s an impressive high bastion wall adjoinging the nuraghe. It’s very overgrown, but you can make out the upper level of the tower, and in the undergrowth, what appears to be the top of the entrance into its lower level.

An impressive looking monotower nuraghe north west of Sedillo. It’s 8.2m tall with a diameter of 14m.

My research notes describe it as being constructed from red basalt; the easterly entrance has a niche to one side and steps to the left leading to the (destroyed) upper level, and leads through to a prefect tholos chamber (5.3m diameter, 7m tall) with 3 niches arranged to form a cruciform with the entrance passage.

However, the field and particularly the area around the nuraghe had the largest, most brutal, thistles we’d seen so far, so we viewed from a distance but had a look around the field and the vicinity to see if we could see its associated tomba – we couldn’t.

On the opposite side of the road is a large gate to the nuraghe and the village which surrounds it. The village huts are a more recent discovery, and the best preserved one can be seen by taking the path between the two roped off sections of village towards the trees north of the nuraghe.

The nuraghe itself is of mixed type (part tholos, part corridor). Through its entrance on the south eastern side, there’s a tholos chamber with an impresive niche in the facing wall. To the left, the stairs to the rest of the building have been roped off as it’s unsafe due to landslides.

Smaller than tomba B, but better preserved, this grave is only metres away with an incredible view over the lake.

The esedra is over 11m wide, and its stones are leaning forward towards the lake. The broken centre slab has a portal hatch 70cm x 55cm. The funery corridor (inside dimensions 4.7m x 0.8m) is perfectly formed and the rear of the grave has the same style of curved stones as its neighbour.

For the modern ticket / info huts, the first thing you see is the perfect curves of the back of tomba B – and the amazing view over Lake Omodeo. The lake however was created around 1920 with a dam across the Tirso, so the original vista would have been over the valley, with its numerous nuraghe, some of which reappear when the water level is low.

The corridor is about 10m x 1.4m and is paved with huge stone slabs. The grave is impressive but not well preserved; in the small copse of trees there are several huge pieces of carved stone which once belonged to it.