Moth

Access: See Dolmens du Font Mejanne page.

Visited Tuesday 11 September 2007
A quite large & rather boxy straightforward dolmen that somehow ‘fits’ perfectly into its landscape.

The sides are angled, seemingly to form a narrower entrance, creating an effect a bit like a portal tomb.

Access: Quite difficult. Not that easy to spot in the valley – we kept seeing bits that looked like the photos of the area they’re in.... But once you spot them you really know you’re in the right place! Also not that easy to park but we found somewhere on the left (west) – a little past the dolmens that we could see across the valley.

Also not easy to find the right place to scramble down into the valley & across the little (when we were there, anyway!) river & up the other side.

There are apparently 4 dolmens here but we only found 3, and there are a plethora nearby to the north. Details are in Bruno Marc’s Dolmens du l’Ardeche, but it seems that these 3 are the pick of the crop – all the others that Bruno has included photos of are (at least) fairly trashed.

Access: See Dolmens du Ranc d’Aven for general comments on finding the site. Only couple of hundred yards walk, but a bit of a scramble down into, across and up the other side of what seemed like dry river beds. Would probably be harder if the river(s) were flowing!

Visited Tuesday 11 September 2007
A nice little rock cairn with bare vestages of a cist or dolmen in the centre. Not altogether ‘whelming’, but in a gorgeous valley – and worth it for Dolmen du Ranc d’Aven No 3 apart from anything else!

Access: See Dolmens du Ranc d’Aven for general comments on finding the site.

As with Dolmen du Ranc d’Aven No 2, only a couple of hundred yards, but a bit of a scramble down into, across and up the other side of what seemed like dry river beds. Would probably be harder if the river(s) were flowing!

Visited Tuesday 11 September 2007
Another nice rock cairn with a fairly trashed small dolmen in the centre. In this setting – kinda lovely!

Access: The complex is reasonably easy to find using Googlemaps, on the north of a bend of the D208 between St Alban d’Auriolles and Chandolas. Turn onto the gravel road & park.

The cairns of ‘Dolmens’ 2 & 3 are to the left of the gravel road and fairly visible around 200-300m from the D208. If you view the site on Googlemaps, note that the path to Dolmen 1 is more obvious on the map than it was ‘on the ground’ when we were there. And the path goes up a very steep slope!!!

I’d say the path is only about 20-30m from the D208 at most, though this is from memory of 2 years ago! Look out for faint brown paint marks on the rocks.

Location slightly doubtful: Very difficult to find on Googlemaps.

Access: Difficult to find on the ground too, quite strenuous to walk to, and very strenuous to get back from! The dolmen is between the D290 and the Ardeche river, about halfway down the steep spectacular gorge.

We parked at a large layby/viewpoint on a bend of the D290 and then I walked north along the D290. The road curves slightly left and then fairly gently but distinctly right again. I scrambled over the armco crash barrier too early & had to come back up after meeting inpenetrable vegetation – don’t make the same mistake!

After a few hundred metres walking – I think it was just as the road stops swinging gently right – there is a gravelly path to the left, angled back the way you’ve just come. Take it. (There may also be a fairly small layby here which you could park at.)

The path meanders reasonably steeply (and at times quite steeply) down through the woods. There are a few sidepaths, but as I remember, I kept to the main path. Just as I was about to give up, there was a (blessed) noticeboard for the dolmen!!!

Visited Monday 10 September 2007
Wow!! What a place. The dolmen is set at the top of a little gravelly platform overlooking the gorge & river. It’s basic, in a nice state of (dis)repair & in itself worth seeing, but the setting is fantastic.

Good job too!!! It was a sweltering day & it had been a hard descent, especially with such a sketchy idea of where I was going & where the monument is! I spent some time photographing & taking the place in, but was very aware that Jane was back at the car and I’d been some time. All too soon I had no choice to take the gruelling climb back up, dripping buckets of sweat back up to the road and back along it.

It was sooooo worth it though!