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Well, it's a big one, make no mistake, standing 6.25ms tall. From the front and back it seems enormously chunky, but from the side it's much thinner and tapers off dramatically towards the top.
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Toul an Urz means the 'bear hole', surely a reference to when our ursine friends still roamed the nearby forest.
One of the three remain capstones, the thinnest and largest, slopes right down to the ground. Whether it originally did so is hard to say – unlikely I'd have thought.
Traditionally, girls wanting a husband would slide down the stone. Surely they'd have been better off speed-dating?!
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Hidden in among a field of tall maize, we almost missed this one entirely.
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North of Cleguerec and west of Mur de Bretagne.
A grand, if a little ruinous, monument on the edge of the Foret de Quenecan, on high ground with superb views over the lower ground of the Blavet river valley out the the east.
Bot er Mohed means the fairy grotto apparently.
It's a bit trashed on one side and you can't get into it anymore due to undergrowth and jumbling up of stones, but it still looks good and complete. There seems to be no stones missing. On one side there is a wall of seven continuous large slabs.
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Near le Quillio by the neat and soul-less 19th century chapel of Notre Dame de la Lorette are 27 standing stones, possibly a cromlech (in the French sense of that word) that is, a horseshoe.
Today the fine stones of quartz and schist appear to be arranged in two parallel lines, 20ms long and 8ms wide, I'm guessing.
The strange juxtaposition of these ancient unhewn and rough stones against cloyingly sweet and nauseating tributes in the chapel to the 'miracles' performed by the virgin is very peculiar.
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About 10 minutes drive from Mougau is this monument that is not to be missed if you're travelling across Brittany.
On the northern outskirts of the village of Brennilis is a real beauty this real beauty: Ty-Ar-Boudiget chambered tomb. It's essentially an allee couverte, but with a complete kerb and an earthen barrow, and stands much as it must have done after it was built.
It reminded us of the many similar more complete jættestue and høj monuments to be found in Denmark and at D49 Schoonoord in the Netherlands. But round here to find a monument in this condition is a rare thing. How it escaped being denuded like all the rest I don't understand, but I'm so glad it did.
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On the drive back up to our cottage in northern Brittany, we took a minor detour through Les Monts d'Arree, to find the magnificent allee couverte of Mougau Bihan. I'd seen it in various books and regularly dribbled over it. Now it was time to see it!
It's on the edge of the village of Commana, resting quietly in a meadow under some apple trees. It's obviously a popular monument because it even had it own car park.
It's 14ms long and is to my eye at least as near a perfect 'classic' allee couverte as you could wish for, with one long chamber, a terminal cell and five contiguous capstones. Several of the uprights have been carved inside with stylised axes, crooks and so on. I found it easy to imagine the whole of the inside of the tomb painted with umbers and ochres in lines and random shapes. (I have no evidence for this, by the way...)
As we admired this spectacular construction, I found it slightly unnerving to be whistled at continuously by an African grey parrot hopping around in a cage outside a farm cottage next door.
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This handsome beast is six metres tall (although it seems taller) and standing, somehow, among flat bedrock outcrops. We could get right up to it, and today it was glowing warm with sunshine. It's an absolute beauty, really chunky and thick. It feels sooo heavy. How they hell they cut it, moved it and raised it I can't imagine. Nearby on some of the outcrops are cup marks.This post appears as part of the blog post " Penmarc'h spectaculaire" |
Paddling in the marsh at the back of dunes, alongside egrets and herons, the menhir du Lehan stands 6.5ms tall. It would be a pretty ordinary sort of menhir anywhere else around here, but with its feet in the water it looked great.This post appears as part of the blog post " Penmarc'h spectaculaire" |
I think in the end we stumbled across the Kerfland alignment – I know we asked at a farm and an old blokey told us to go left and left again, pointing roughly in the direstion we needed to go. There might have been a sign; anyway, we found them down a path off a narrow lane and they were well worth it.
Among the trees stand 3 tall menhirs about 3 or 4ms tall stand very close together, perhaps on 1 or 2ms apart. Each stone was a broad flat blade, weathered at the top and they were lined up in a row, narrow edge to narrow edge. They reminded me a lot of the stones at Stenness.This post appears as part of the blog post " Penmarc'h spectaculaire" |
At Quélarn, near Plobannalec, we found a complex site with all kinds of monuments going on: cists, chambers, and dolmens abound. There are three passage graves, all of which are quite trashed, and it takes some imagination to 'rebuild' them in your mind.This post appears as part of the blog post " Penmarc'h spectaculaire" |
Perhaps less than 1km from Lestriguiou the Menez-Landu dolmen at Kerdanno also hangs out at the roadside, but this time actually on the main D785. It's actually hidden away in thick gorse about 10 metres back from the road opposite a creperie.
It's a very pleasing and simple construction; 3 big uprights and a cap.
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We found it just hanging out in a dense wooded hedge down a lane just north of the D785. A nice passage, big stones and two capstones.This post appears as part of the blog post " Penmarc'h spectaculaire" |
It's at the far side of a field which is clearly marked 'Private Property' so we didn't venture too close, but even from a distance we could see it was really big – 9 ms tall - and dramatic. It has a wider splaying top, down which run deep ridges formed from weathering. From the side you can see it's actually wedge shaped. Whether it was originally like this, or it is just weathering that has caused this wedge shape is hard to tell.
It's one of the largest menhirs in Penmarc'h.This post appears as part of the blog post " Penmarc'h spectaculaire" |
Now clearly 'La Musee Prehistorique' is not in itself a prehistoric monument, but the sheer number of prehistoric monuments which have been saved and re-erected in its grounds make it worthy of inclusion on the website – and not just as a 'facility'.
I'm not going to list them all, because there are so many – cists, menhirs, dolmens, stele, and get this, the complete restoration of an entire allee couverte which was saved from destruction and rebuilt here, stone by stone.
Address:
Musée de la Préhistoire Finistérienne
657 Rue du Musée Préhistorique
Pors Carn
29132 Penmarc'h
Phone: 02 98 58 60 35 / 06 83 54 63 39
Easy parking opposite.This post appears as part of the blog post " Penmarc'h spectaculaire" |
It's in a very dramatic setting, right up on a little headland, sticking out between two wide sandy beaches popular with surfers. It's next to a massive concrete structure which was probably some kind of war emplacement. As well as a central passage it's got five chambers; they're a bit difficult to 'read' as the monument is in some state of disrepair, but it's well worth going to see it for it's gorgeous seaside location alone.This post appears as part of the blog post " Penmarc'h spectaculaire" |
In the fields by a bucolic lane near Plomeur, the Kerugou dolmen is actually a dinky T-shaped passage grave with two chambers at the far end of the passage. Its still got one capstone up which looks at first sight like two because of the way it has been restored. The whole monument stands proud; the lane passing it is at a lower level than the field its in so as you approach it looks much bigger than it actually is.
I noticed a strange smooth round cylindrical stone right next the monument lying on its side. It was in the unmistakeable shape of a giant penis. None of the books or info I can find about this site mentions it at all. Very weird.This post appears as part of the blog post " Penmarc'h spectaculaire" |
Perched dramatically on the rolling clifftops overlooking the beach and harbour it's a bit too perfect now, but hey there's a good reason and at least it's still here.
When it was excavated various objects were found; cremations, pottery, weapons, tools, jewels and even bits of glass. More recently, as with so many monuments, it was robbed for building materials but many of the large stone still survived. During the second world war its position on the clifftops almost became its undoing as it obstructing the visibility of a coastal battery, so it was dynamited! Thankfully the local people wanted it restored, and so it has been, into the monument we see today but it feels more like a strange park-bound folly.
It's big at 10.8ms long with 16 uprights, some of which are overlapping or louvred which I thought was a bit unusual. You can walk right into it without stooping.
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This menhir at Plozevet church is still being used. It's been incorporated into a war memorial. Accompanied by a statue of a soldier and the carved names of all those young men from Plozevet who died during two world wars, this mighty 4.5m tall menhir rises above it all. It somehow gives the memory of all those chaps an extra poignancy. I like to think that the original function of the menhir may have been to mark some great Neolithic warrior chief whose name is lost in time. But in remembering his modern Breton brothers we remember him.
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It's about 12ms long and with five large capstones the largest over 2ms long, and still has plenty of mound, which we liked.
Don't be confused by the interchangability of its name. Many places round here have multiple names, both French and Breton, but also folkloric names. Kerbalanec is the name of the hamlet on the road sign, and in one or two books we've got. Aubrey Burl in his 1984 edition of 'Megalithic Brittany' calls it Kerbanalec, as does the blokey on the Megalithes Breton website: http://megalithes-breton.fr
Well, whatever it's called it's the same place.This post appears as part of the blog post " Crozon crazy" |
The allée couverte of Ty ar Chorriket, near the hamlet of Lesconil, is built in a very unusual style of which only half a dozen or so examples are known. This 'arc boutée' style involves two rows of slabs leaned in towards each other to form a tent-like structure or house of cards, perhaps in the way that Ray Mears might build a forest bivouac.
Six or seven large triangular(ish) slabs down each side lean in to form a dramatic passage 12ms long. It's even got some of its original kerbstones and enough of its barrow material left to get a really good impression of its spectacular size.
I liked to think that the pointy tops of the stones might have protruded through the top of the barrow. Now how cool would that have been to see?
Spectacular and worth driving a long way to see.This post appears as part of the blog post " Crozon crazy" |
Now isolated on a lonely crossroads (it stands in the middle of the crossroads) this menhir of about 2.5ms tall is a rounded pillar. It is probably quite different from its original form, and felt very much to us as if it had been tinkered with, rounded and sculpted into a more innocuous stele than a heathen menhir of the 'old' religion. That's happened a lot to many stones in Brittany.This post appears as part of the blog post " Crozon crazy" |
Like at Poulyot we saw the sign but couldn't immediately see it. Moth noticed something lurking 50ms away from the laneside to the right at the edge of a field of tall maize (I thought it was old farm equipment) but he got out to have a closer look. And there it was.
A tight group of uprights leaning inwards like the swords of the three musketeers support a really square and flat capstone, just like a rustic table. It was richly veined with quartzy stripes, which is surely the reason why this stone was selected for this purpose.This post appears as part of the blog post " Crozon crazy" |
This is a very simple and small dolmen of three stones holding up a capstone. It sits on a small bank at the laneside in the hedgerow on the edge of a pretty hamlet near the main road.This post appears as part of the blog post " Crozon crazy" |
On a spectacular high rocky, heathy promentary facing west once stood some more alignments at Lostmarch. Now there are very few left, but enough to interest the more anorakky megalith-hunter, including a couple of very large menhirs. The beach to the south was obviously a favourite with surfers, catching the great Atlantic rollers. The whole place reminded me a lot of Rhossili on the Gower.This post appears as part of the blog post " Crozon crazy" |
Here 84 bright white quartzy stones of varying shapes are lined up on their parade ground, a sandy heath by the sea. The tallest is 2.5ms, but on average about they're about 1.8ms. The principal alignment is about 200ms long running NE to SW and has two shorter rows running away from it to the west. It feels incomplete (was this once a quadrilateral? Did the lines run further – I bet they did) but no less beautiful or impressive for that.
They don't overwhelm the visitor like the squillions of stones Carnac, instead they invite you to almost be part of them, to line up with them and join in the fun.. The whole shebang is on a human scale and had an ambience of Callanish about it. And with the bright sunshine casting long shadows on the dewy grass it felt very like this monument was something to do with telling the time, the seasons and calendars.
They are worth the trip out as far west as this. Absolute magic.This post appears as part of the blog post " Crozon crazy" |
Oh la la, it's big. Very big. They say the tallest still standing menhir in the world. And I can believe it. It's 9.5ms, for goodness sake! That's 31 feet in old money. And it used to be taller still! A lightning strike a couple of centuries ago knocked 2ms off the top apparently. Quite apart from its sheer dizzying height, it is a curious shape; not even and slender like most of the menhirs, but wider than it is thick.
It has two curious sticky-outy hemispherical lumps carved on either side, each about the size of half a football. Each is at about belly height. I could well imagine superstitious people wanting to increase their fecundity coming to the menhir to rub their abdomens on the lumps in the hope of getting babies. They'd have been better off just having sex…This post appears as part of the blog post " In the land of the giants" |
Kergadiou menhirs are a pair: the standing one (or should I say towering?) is 8.75ms tall and an utter beast! Some books say it's the second tallest menhir in Brittany.
Eighty metres away in the same field, its partially fallen twin is no less impressive. Lying like a beached whale at perhaps 25 degrees, like a giant sundial, it is an unbelievable 11ms long - 11ms! It is less of a menhir and more of a runway on an aircraft carrier. It simply invites you to run up its flat surface and stand on the summit from where there's a good 4m drop to the ground.This post appears as part of the blog post " In the land of the giants" |
After having seen what was beginning to feel like a million menhirs in a matter of minutes (such is their frequency) the sight of a dolmen was too good to miss. It wasn't clear where the dolmen was; all we had was the sign by the field edge and we couldn't see it at all. Moth stomped off down the field anyway – surely we'd bump into it. But we didn't.
The maize in the next field was tall and ready for harvest. Moth stood on a rock to gain height and survey the landscape. It was only by getting this extra height that Moth could see Poulyot's capstone. I was standing only metres away from the dolmen but couldn't see it for the crop. We scrambled over the brambly field boundary. The farmer had helpfully left an uncropped section so we could reach it this dreamy dolmen easily.
And four large granite slabs of picture perfect proportions sparkled in the September sun.
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This is a very nice pair of menhirs standing 60ms apart in the same field. One measures 4ms and the second 3.9ms. Slender, finely and evenly shaped all the way to the top, like most of the menhirs here, each one seems to have four distinct sides.This post appears as part of the blog post " In the land of the giants" |
The pair of menhirs at a fork in the road near St Denec are each individually relatively small for round here. One measures 3.2m, and the second 3.1m, but add that up and you have a total befitting of Finsterian menhirs! Small and pointy, they reminded us strongly of The Pipers. There's also a fallen one of a measly 2.7ms, so once this was almost certainly an alignment.This post appears as part of the blog post " In the land of the giants" |
The menhir of Kerhouezel has many names. I've also seen it called Kerdelvas, and in our 1984 edition of 'Megalithic Brittany' Aubrey Burl calls it Kerreneur. Well, whatever it's called it's another six and half metre whopper, very slim with four rounded sides and a gracefully tapering top.This post appears as part of the blog post " In the land of the giants" |
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As we were driving through the village of St Gonvel near Landunvez I spotted a 'dolmen' road sign. The monument wasn't marked on our map, but as it was there on a plate, we got out to walk the 20 metres or so down a little track between gardens to have a shufti, stopping to admire a large chirping grasshopper en route. And what a sweet little dolmen it is, crouching low into the ground with a capstone like a Tintin quiff and of the same blondeness as the young Belgian adventurer. Very dinky and charming.
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This huge and impressive cairn was built on what is now a rocky promentary and is only accessible at low tide. When we arrived we were unlucky and although the tide was going out, the channel of water about five metres wide was too deep with too strong a current for us to cross. However, we scrambled over the rocks, leaping over rockpools to get as close as we could.
It was built in the same way as Barnenez 50 miles or so further east; a massive step-pyramidal cairn of stones featuring, in Ile Carn's case, three chambers. The central chamber has a tall corbelled roof. From where we were standing it looked a bit of a muddle and we longed to leap across the water and have a good poke around. Alas! Alas! If you visit, check out the tides.
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At six and half metres tall with a rounded profile this monster stands proud on a little rise of land surrounded by huge fields, which today are inhabited by a nervous flock of partridges which exploded noisily out of the field next to it.
You can drive right up to it, the lane runs right past it.This post appears as part of the blog post " In the land of the giants" |
an article about the re-building of the Quoits, by archaeologist Gill Hey
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A description of this dramatic passage grave in French.
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Habitat: Commonly sighted in fields round Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.
Distribution: Widespread; occasional migrations to overwinter in Africa or other hot climes.
Characteristics: A tall, blonde, opinionated bird with feisty temper when provoked. Prone to spells of gloom during winter months. Usually sporting dark plumage, except for golden head, can often spotted with sketchbook and brushes near megalithic sites.
Feeding habits: Easily tempted with cheese (any variety) or a nice cup of tea. Unfeasibly fond of curry.
Behaviour: Unpredictable, approach cautiously. Responds very favourably to flattery.
Abhors: slugs, invisible sky gods, Tories, the Daily Mail, bigots, eggs, the cold, walking and timewasting.
Adores: a man called Moth, painting, live music, furry creatures, tea administered frequently, hot places, cheese, writing crap poetry, David Attenborough, Ernest Shackleton, Vincent van Gogh and the English language.
Want more?: see her website.
Big old rocks I find appealling
Their secrets they are not revealing
Some are chambers, some are tombs
Hidden in valleys and in combes
Some are said to act like clocks
With shadows cast out from their rocks
I like the way they just survive
When I visit, I feel alive
So I chase my rocks around the maps
Round England, Ireland and France, perhaps
But there ain't nothin' that I liked so much
As to see the Hunebedden, dem is Dutch.
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