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“The capstone of the SE chamber has fallen inwards and is now tilted against the rear stones which have fallen outwards.” Aubrey Burl, Megalithic Brittany, page 151

Alignment or remains of a circle at Mané Kerioned.

Chamber of the western tomb from behind one of the stones of the alignment(?)/circle(?).

Chamber of the western passage grave, with the earlier, central tomb to the left.

Western passage grave.

Chalked-in artwork at the underground passage grave.

An impressive stone in Locmariaquer. It’s on the right-hand side of the street as you approach Mané Rutuel from Mané Lud.

The smashed menhir in Locmariaquer.

All of the 3 main alignments have small collections of curious stone settings. The one in the left of this shot would bear an outing by itself. Menec, Kermario and Kerlescan are all hugely impressive, but for serious stoneheads they may leave one frustrated and regretful as they are all fenced in and only very restricted, paid, guided-tour-access is available (in summer anyway – I’m not sure of out-of-season arrangements).

Kerlescan is at the ‘quieter’, eastern end of the 3 great Carnac alignments. Petit Menec is further east.

I didn’t give in to the urge to hop the fence.

Stones, stones, stones.

Feeble attempt to capture this monument. I was in a hurry, but have to say this was the most unengaging site of my Brittany visit.

Manio giant, 6.5 metres tall.

Looking east from the path at the windmill.

Pano from the windmill. The alignments have been variously cut through down through the years by footpaths and roads.

Very overgrown Kercadoret. It’s almost by the roadside but takes an uphill walk through brambles and nettles – I bled for this one.

The fantastic passage.

All of the roofstones at Mane Rutuel are still in place.

Shot taken from the back end of the tomb. The concrete ‘chamber’ is at this end and replaces the void left after ‘excavation’. The capstone continues about 4 metres beyond the actual chamber of the tomb.

The passage that leads to the chamber is at the WSW end of a “...long mound, known locally as the Mound of Ashes, ... 107 metres by 54 metres in plan and nearly 6 metres high...” A lot of the material from the mound was used in the building of the small village beside the monument.

A lot of the carvings in the tombs in Brittany have their artwork highlighted with chalk or charcoal or some other material. It helps the visitor recognise what are often feint and weathered motifs, but maybe in the long run is not the best practice.

The mighty chamber capstone seems to have broken under its own weight.

I’ve seen this motif style variously described as serpentiform or, more prosaically, wavy lines.

Heavily carved orthostat at Mane Lud.

Open to debate, but the earthquake theory seems to me to be the best.

“In its unbroken state the menhir would have measured 20.3 metres.” Aubrey Burl, Megalithic Brittany, page 135

The destroyed and re-constructed tumulus of Er Grah, another Carnac mound.

The restored passage grave – Carnac’s Newgrange?

Close-up of the ‘hafted and thonged axe’.

The neck of the passage with the carved axe in the chamber roofstone.

The east end of the tumulus.

“... the eyes of the visitor are always darting back to check that the two largest stones are really as large as they first thought.” Julian Cope, The Megalithic European, page 87

Massive stone here at St. Barbe.

The remaining two diminished rows. Shot taken from atop the northern monster blocking stone. Once upon a time there were 8 rows, 400 metres in length.

The view from the road.

Another lost stone.

The smaller stone is over two metres tall.

One of the lonesome (what are now) outliers. I loved the orange lichen.

Possibly my favourite site in Carnac/Plouharnel.

“Were it anywhere else in the world, this magnificent and dynamic alignment of six stones would be the kind of monument which megalithic pilgrims would travel hundreds of miles to see. Yet, within its Carnac environment, this remarkable setting of Menhirs du Vieux Molin is almost forgotten.”
Julian Cope, The Megalithic European, page 88.

‘nuff said.

Over three metres tall.

An elegant stone, if that’s not too fancy a term for a 30 ton lump of rock.

Visitor to the left of the shot gives a bit of scale.

I was followed around by telegraph poles and cables.

Close up of what look like two portal stones, the capstone having slipped backwards (though this could just be my imaginings, dolmen being a catch-all word in these parts, including passage graves, and not the pseudonym for portal tombs as it is closer to home).

Another of the ‘just happened to be passing’ dolmens I encountered on my trip. Traffic on the road is quite unforgiving so be careful.

The western passage, said to be the latest of the three passages it’s also the smallest.

The urban Rondossec came with its own little pixie.