Spaceship mark

Kerlud dolmen is all that remains of a once great Carnac-Mound. Burl believes that the dolmen itself was probably a later insertion.
The mound, once comparable to Mane Lud or Mane Er Hroek, was dismantled and used to build the hamlet that also bears the name Kerlud.

In the heart of Carnac-Plage it is uncertain if this is truly a prehistoric monument. Burl does not include it in ‘Megalithic Brittany’. However it is included in Gabriel Le Cam’s monumental ‘Le Guide de Megalithes de Morbihan’, he calls them:

“A dolmen and menhir that are certainly not in their original location”

Although the dolmen is super-sterotypical but not, on closer inspection, much like anything else around here, the stones themselves have an air of ‘ancientness’ and do not have the quarry marks and boreholes of many recently erected megaliths.
It could just be that these stones once formed an ancient monument, although whether this was their form is open to debate...

So a day traipsing around non-descript menhirs and ruined dolmens can have its rewards after all. And this is my reward. This magnificent dual-sex idol stone, massive and alone, in an unsignposted field.
Around 4m high the SW face is a perect goddess figure yet the NW is the slanting priapic phallus of all time. There is some evidence that the stones was shaped and even if not tis a well selected and beautiful stone.
These little (or massive actually) surprises are the reward for all our hard work. REAL DISCOVERIES!

Well the map said this was destroyed and indeed it is. Quite a bugger to find too with my two incompatibly scaled maps. In many ways though it’s still worth a visit.
Set on slightly higher ground and hence, this being the Norfolk of France, commanding views of all around. The dolmen is now a low mound around 11m long by 5m wide. A number of large stones lie upon and within this mound including at least one former capstone. The others may be the collapsed walls; although for all I can tell there may still be a chamber within.
I am realizing that this area may not be the megalithic metropolis it appears at first glance on a map but these small, sadly ruined, sites have a personal air lacking at some more impressive sites. And it feels more like real antiquarianism hunting them out too!
The mound is orientated around 340°-160°.

Worthy of a visit for its name alone this 2m cream granite pillar is nestled at the end of a short alley off a busy dual carriageway. In many ways it is nothing special in a pointy kind of way but I am visiting everything so…

At last a site I can access and rather pleasant it is too. This two and a half metre menhir sits in short grass at the edge of a field. Wide and tall but thin across in a playing card kind of way and the stone is of creamy white quartz rich granite.
One can see on the south face how the menhir was split from the bedrock along a quartz vein as a layer of smooth quartz covers the surface.
I think that I’ll start calling these ‘Barbamama’ stones after the blobby cartoon wife of Babapapa. Cos that’s what they look like really.
The land around is very flat, although we are near a water tower, and to the north is the vast sprawl of the port of St.Nazaire.
The long axis of the stone is orientated 220°-040°.

AAAGGHH! More private property! And a lovely tapering lozenge menhir this is too. Maybe 3m+ but I can’t get to it at all. How frustrating this is becoming.

The ‘Bounding Stone’ (I believe) is also private AND in the middle of a flooded water meadow! Ho hum…well these sites are not even marked on the 1:100,000 scale map so maybe the better known sites will be easier. The menhir appears to be a largish lozenge of about 2m but unfortunately I can say no more…

Another chunky menhir guarded by, not just a fence, but cows too! Could be on a mound or it could just be the pricklys that the cows don’t want to eat. NEXT!

There are in fact two menhirs here. The first small, from which a signpost rises, and the second larger but fallen, to the west.
This is curious megalith country, very flat and in close proximity to the Loire River. Indeed I’ve just seen the vast bulk of the Queen Mary 2 in St.Nazaire ship works, where it is being built.
Why such a seemingly insignificant pair of menhirs warrant signposting from the main road I’m not sure, but if I must be the modern antiquarian then completion rules.

Dolmen des Rossignols
‘It’s a suburban dolmen!‘
At last something unique and interesting. The dolmen sits below ground level in a large crater in an empty plot amongst an estate of bungalows. I t would seem likely that the dolmen was discovered whilst the foundations for another such bungalow were being dug. If this were true it would explain the row of holes connected by a crack along the top of the capstone. It would appear that an attempt was made to split the capstone before (hopefully before) its significance was realized.
And what a capstone! A good 3m by 4m and about 70cm thick at the edges this is a monster and the only capstone surviving, is ever there were more. It is actually difficult to ascertain where the original entrance was as it was either blocked off in prehistory or some of the uprights were placed wrongly during restoration. Nonetheless this is a very important and impressive dolmen.
The chamber inside is now very low but this could be due to the infill of sandy soil more than anything else, and the capstone appears to be supported by a combination of corbelling and orthostats.
Also, whilst here, I finally managed a break a rule by eating my lunch while blissfully unaware of the ‘no picnics’ sign, hurray!
The rocks appear to be a mixture of schist and granite and one wonders how far they were dragged to this sandy spot…

I have visited Crucuny a number of times over the years. It is an impressive mound and I used to like catching out of the corner of my eye from the road to Carnac.
It is pot-luck as to whether you find it covered in six foot high vegetation or shaved clean by the council’s rather aggressive looking lawnmower.
I will, at some point, work out how many of these Grand Tumuli were intervisible in a landscape with less trees...

Untill recently the Tumulus de Kercado was the oldest dated megalithic site in Europe, conservative carbon dating putting it at around 4800BCE. The single chamber is reached through a low passage which is clearly distinguishable from the chamber itself. This layout points to the tumulus being very early in the Breton passage graves sequence.
About 2000 years after its construction a stone circle was added surrounding the original tumulus, as if to preserve its importance in the, then, modern age. This reverence, and the fact that the tumulus sits at the highest point in the area (hence the huge water tower next door) leads one the believe that the Tumulus de Kercado was possible the most important site in Carnac for many centuries. The water tower is a useul reference, sticking up above the more recent trees. It shows that in Neolthic times and beyond the tumulus would have been clearly visible from all over the Carnac region.
The tumulus is in the grounds of manor house and in private care. A small child or an honestly box will charge you about a euro for the pleasure of entrance but if you visit in the early morning you will almost certainly have the place pretty much to yourself, even in high season. However if you visit in the afternoon you will have the advantage of being able to pop into the creperie to pancake yourself up for the next site.

12:07:03ce

Almost a year and a half after I came here with Julian Cope I have returned to Vieux Moulin. I’d forgotten just how effective the illusion the stones create is. As one approaches one is sure that there are four stones n this short, solitary row. Only when the approach angle changes slightly can one see that in fact there are six.

I remain unconvinced by Aubrey Burl’s ‘slight curve’ and it seems to me this was only ever as it is now. These shortish stone rows are indeed an riddle. They enclose no space, they do not seem precise enough to facilitate astronomical observations, so what were they for? I think the clue may lie in the fact that many of these rows are (relatively) isolated and away from large ritual centres. In that one can read that, like so many of the smaller dolmens, these were monuments for a small community. The village chapel for day to day use away from the great cathedral of Carnac.

It almost seems that one can try to read to much into these type of monuments, trying to find reason or purpose, in the end I think it goes back to the mountaineer’s answer; why did they put up the stones? Because they were there…

12:07:03ce

I came here for two reasons, firstly because I have not been here for two years and on that occasion I took no notes and secondly to try and find the second dolmen claimed to be to the north of here. I have already failed on the second count as I traipsed around much high gorse and heather and found nothing.
So now to Mane Croch, I now remember why I liked this place so much the last time and how my photos did it no justice. A long passage leads to a chamber that it transepted into four. The stones are all of a lovely chunky local granite. No mound covers this dolmen now and there is no capstone over the centre of the four chambers. It could be that this part of the roof was corbelled and that this site was a mixture of those two construction methods, both common in the area. In fact at nearby Mané Braz the roof is formed by a sort of ‘mega-corbelling’.
The layout of this monument is clearly similar to UK sites such as West Kennet long barrow and I like to believe that the dolmens of the Carnac area were a direct influence on those of southern England.

Hidden in the woods between Kerlescan and La Trinite this is one of those little treats for the dedicated hunter. Remember the trick is to seek out the ‘Camping Interdit’ signs and hope for the best. This is one of the reasons to get a good map and go hunting, you can guarantee no one will have been there for ages so you can get a real ‘I’m an explorer’ experience.

The most popular misconception about how this site gets its name is that it was knowns as ‘The Merchant’s Table’. In fact its name comes from the former land owners, whose name was Marchant.
These days the Table des Marchants is covered by a wholly reconstructed cairn, which serves not only to protect the carvings within but also to demonstrate how many of the, now uncovered, local dolmens would have originally looked. Although the accuracy of this reconstruction cannot be guaranteed, it was based on detailed study of the underlying archaeology.
Within the mound the fabulous rear upright stone is decorated with many crooks, but in many ways the main attraction is the capstone. For here one can see a partial carving of two horned beasts. This capstone was once a section of a large carved menhir, the tip of which now covers the Er-Grah mound next door. However it was only realised fairly recently that the third section is now the main capstone of the Gavrinis mound, a few kilometres away on an island in the Gulf of Morbihan. This was one of the discoveries which lead to the theory of older menhirs being destroyed and used in passage-gave construction.
The Table des Marchants forms a complex with the Grand Menhir Brise and the Er- Grah mound, but many of Locamariaquer’s other sites are in close proximity.

23rd April 2003

I visited Dissignac with my sister back at the beginning of March but heavy rain made any fieldwork or even general hanging quite impossible. Today there is only wispy cloud in the sky and I can write these notes lying on the grass in front of the tumulus.
Dissignac is one of those marvelously restored tumuli that looks like nothing less than a huge megalithic flying saucer, its stepped facings of drystone walling reflecting successive retaining walls within.
Two passages are sunk into the mound so when one sees a photo it is almost as if one is supposed to cross ones eyes to get a 3-D effect! These ‘stereo dolmens’ are numerous in southeast france but not so common up here. So Dissignac is worth a visit if only to witness its mutant two holed attack.
A small visitor centre (closed while I was here) suggests this place can get quite busy, even so, two days after Easter, with the kids off school, I am given Dissignac to myself.

01 May 2003

In the beautifully manicured ‘Parc de Roi de Menhirs’ (Park of the King of Menhirs) and outside the townhall of Arville stands the massive Menhir du Champ de César. At eight metres seventy it is the tallest menhir in the Vendée and comes at you in a classic Champ Dolent/Manio kind of way. It was once one of an alignment of three but the other two were sadly removed. A local hotel still bears the name ‘Auberge des Trois Pilliers’.
These massive menhirs are still such a mystery, although as part of an alignment it could at least have some astronomical significance.
Although it is difficult to tell in this built up area it is likely that the menhir stands on slightly higher ground and was maybe once intervisible with other sites in the area…

14:08:03ce

This Kercado sized tumulus outside the village of Le Bono is fascinating for a number of reasons. The great mound itself covers a very long passage of orthostats and drystone which bends through almost 90degrees partway along. This then opens out into a chamber with almost enough room to stand. The faint remains of carvings can be seen along the passage including a goddess figurine. This chamber, if required, could be pitch black at any time of day.
Inspite of the condensation on the stones themselves the floor in here is remarkably dry.
What is also fascinating though is the surroundings. Around the tumulus are a number of burial mounds dated to the Iron Age. However they are very much like megalithic structures, one still having, what Aubrey Burl describes as, a small dolmen like structure at its centre. South of the tumulus are a number of fantastic natural rock outcrops, maybe part shaped by man.
Clearly this area was sacred for a long time. From the time before the megaliths to a time when they had long since ceased to be constructed. Were the pine trees not here there would be views out to the Gulf of Morbihan. But how did that area look back then when sea levels meant it was no sea at all…

14:08:03

For many years I have planned a trip out here and finally I have made it. This is one fantastic site. The carved figurine which was the Guard stone for the passage is long gone but there is a cast in the museum and its image forms the head of ‘Neo’ the mascot who guides children through the artifacts.
The passage here is relatively short, if all the area past the, almost 90degree, bend is counted as the chamber. This part of the passage-grave is a long passage too which widens slightly at the end and is terminated by a large slab. Burl says some of the stones are carved but the moss and weather have made these carvings invisible to my eye.
It is hard to imagine what this place would have been like when it was complete. The long stoop down the pitch-dark tunnel to the wider area must have been frightening. No natural light would have penetrated so deep and the guarding goddess must have seemed imposing.
Who knows why these were so planned but les Pierres Plats and the Tumulus at le Bono are similar in plan so they were popular in this area.
Someone seems to have built some kind of ‘den’ between the entrance stones, which is curious and makes me think of the village idiot at Crucuno, is it just kids or does some modern idiot retire here for his rest?
Sitting in these woods by these ancient and deserted stones has a profound resonance with me now. The years of antiquarians, archaeologists, enthusiast and tourists seem to almost haunt the trees. One can almost see them standing around in the clothes of centuries, almost imagine some weary travelers stopping here for rest, although it is not really on the way anywhere.

The Dolmen de Kerlutu sits at the edge of a track near Belz, just to the northwest of Erdeven. The dolmen appears to have had some kind of restoration at sometime, as there is some fairly ‘new’ looking drystone walling inside.
There is no evidence of a passage remaining here. The chamber though is set in a low mound, which reaches the tops of the uprights but does not encroach on the outsize capstone.
And what a capstone, almost inappropriately large for the chamber it covers; it is supported by drystone walling and three of the four megalithic orthostats.
One can imagine that these five stones were at one time all that remained at Kerlutu. And a splendid denuded dolmen it would have been. The restoration, that I am guessing replaced the walls and mound, created a rather odd dolmen/tumulus hybrid, which is nonetheless still impressive.

18:06:03

At the side of the road, in the hamlet of Kerguérhen near Belz sits the Dolmen de Er Roc’h. This is more like the Carnac dolmens I’m used too. It is a mid-period passage grave with some differentiation between the passage and the chamber. A smallish and understated dolmen it is today half covered by ivy, and even the floor inside is carpeted with the voracious climber.
These are the unpretentious, unimposing dolmens that one finds all over this area. These are not such monsters as the Grand Tumuli, which would draw pilgrims from miles around, but the small family tombs serving the outlying communities of the Carnac area. Almost like the domestic shrines found in the homes of Hindus.
But still I must visit for that is my mission, and in order to get the whole picture one must see all the pixels…

18/06/03ce

These two dolmens at the summit of a natural hill over looking some of the islands that lie in the Riviere d’Etel, the Ile de Niheu, Ile de Reic’h, Ile des Moines and the Ile du Petit Niheu.
Of the two the northern most is more complete, having, it seems, all it’s uprights and two capstones, including a rippling weetabix that covers the chamber. The second as faired less well and only the low stones of the chamber and a few uprights of the passage remain. It seems unlikely that this second dolmen ever had capstones, it being more likely to have had a corbelled chamber instead, the uprights are two low, I feel, to directly support a capstone. This dolmen is also surrounded by the remains of a low mound.
From this evidence and also from looking at the way the chambers are differentiated from the passages I would guess that the hatless dolmen is the earlier of the two as it’s chamber is somewhat more clearly defined as being separate from the passage.
The location of two dolmens from different time periods atop this same hill does then point to its importance as a sacred area. The river valley would not have been so flooded as it is now so maybe those islands were similar hills which were addressed by the dolmens here.
I’m now going to try and find a dolmen which my guidebook describes as being ‘completely invaded by vegetation’, I have not high hopes for finding it.

18:06:03

I have managed to find the Dolmen de Sept Saints. Almost as hard to find as Kerluir, this again involved some bramble trampling, gorse avoiding action.
The book I’m using now says this is in a sad state, and since the photo therein was taken it’s got worse. The dolmen is completely overgrown, one can just see the stones of the passage and the capstone peering through the vegetation but the situation will only get worse here.
A fairly long passage, that is now uncovered, leads to a very low chamber covered by a capstone. It could be that the chamber was originally deep but has been filled in through time.
I’m going to go now because something large and alive is in these woods and scaring me!
Later:
As I fought my way out of the woods I was walking along what I believed to be an overgrown path, however it seems that it may well have been the capstones of the chambers of a second dolmen, totally overwhelmed by the foliage.

If you stand on the remains of the mound and face toward the ruined chamber there’s a tiny sleeping goddess hill away away on the far horizon. We almost missed this but it went on to inspire the spaceship choir-a-thon ‘Distant Ma She Dig Maen Pebyll’.

Woah... she does smack you in the head. Possibly the only road protesting hill in Britain. This momma has had a massive landslide creeping slowly down its side for centuries if not millenia, giving it the nickname the shivering mountain. The result of this is the road they tried to build accross it contantly kept collapsing for about 70 years until they eventually gave up a few years back.. Right On.
Anyway, capped by the remains of an Iron Age fort this natural proto temple struck me the first moment I saw it, knowing nothing about its ancient associations, I knew something was going on.
Check it out, especially in the driving wind and rain.