Looking down and out of the passage from the eastern chamber. The roofstone at the neck of the passage, visible here, is immense, but is dwarfed by many more immensities here at Rondossec. Three parallel passages in one mound – this was a first for me.
The passage of the central grave.
The capstones of the east (foreground) and central passage graves. The central is undifferentiated, the eastern chamber widens and has a side cell.
Heading back to the campsite with my companion we happened upon this, a not insignificant dolmen. There was to be more than one occasion when this occurred – Carnac is like that.
An attempt to capture the monster chamber capstone. This was my first try of many at many different sites – nothing can quite prepare you for the scale of things in Brittany, as the cliché goes. Kercado was busy this day, mid-July 2016, despite the €1 entrance charge.
The splendid Kercado passage grave, very busy in the summer.
The Kermario Dolmen, an undifferentiated passage grave.
The west end (beginning?) of the Kermario alignments.
The stones at the west end of the alignment are huge, the one behind the three in the foreground here well over 3 metres tall. The stones gradually get smaller as the alignment heads east.
Looking North from the westernmost point of the cromlech.
Part of the surviving NNW arc of the cromlech, most of which have been re-erected.
From here ‘til the horizon. – Menec doesn’t disappoint.
The fenced in alignment, from the car-park at the tiny Menec Ville.
The west end of the Menec alignments. The stones are largest here, some well over ten feet tall.
Stayed a while with these. Wish I’d stayed longer.
This would have been the entrance/door. The tomb is aligned facing east. The northern portal, almost 2.5 metres tall, still stands, along with the northern side-wall of the chamber. The rest of the stones have collapsed.
Madam gives a bit of scale here. If this was still standing it would rival and surpass any of the south Dublin portals.
The stone in the foreground is the base of the smashed, southern portal. As the capstone collapsed it snapped this stone in two and pushed the top part 2 metres away – you can see that in the background here, its plane matching exactly that of the foreground stone.
All of the structural stones here are vast – the remaining standing portal, the standing side-wall stone, the collapsed (under the capstone) side-wall stone and of course the mighty capstone.
Wish they’d cut the trees here and let the tomb breathe a little.
Drone footage
Preban 4 is lying on the ground beside an unmarked grave slab. The next slab along the track is Preban 3.
Preban 4, with one large prominent cupmark. The other is barely visible in this shot.
Preban 3 has been raised back into place, again with its narrower end in the ground.
The narrower, curved end of this stone is buried. It’s also the more decorated section. But still, the cupmarks here are well visible.
In his wonderful book, Inscribing the Landscape: The rock art of South Leinster wordwellbooks.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1607 Christiaan Corlett writes of the re-use and rediscovery of 3 cup-marked stones in Preban cemetery. We found 2 of these stones, and what is maybe a fourth, very small, stone with 2 cups.
Using the gazeteer at the back of the book, it was hard to locate the stones as they are both not in the same position as when Christiaan photographed them. I’ve only realised now that the third stone, the one that we didn’t find, named Preban 1 in the book, is illustrated also. Ah well.
I’ve followed the naming convention from the book, Preban 1, 2 and 3 and taken the liberty of adding the fourth, Preban 4, discovered by seven-year-old Lily-Mae.
Just a quick zoomed update shot of Onagh portal. Looks like it’s in fine fettle, but more or less ignored as usual.
The bullaun has been moved here from its unknown original place.
LM gives some scale. This is a glacial erratic, not a standing stone, but has significance in that the glacier dropped it right on the summit of Cronebane Hill.
Looking north-west into the Wicklow mountains.
The decoration is at the back of this stone at the east end of Carnew town.
Second main motif on this stone, hard to photograph with the landscaping.
