Our continuing adventures in Brittany.
Mané Er Hroech
The entrance to this massive tumulus is modern. The mound itself is huge but was covered with bushes, shrubs, and undergrowth. Inside, the central chamber had no obvious entrance/exit and the ceiling is very low — you have to bend over.
One of the slabs inside has these images. Again, unusual in that they are recognizable images, at least we think. The tools seem clear enough; does that bell-shape look like a woman?
The local legend is the mound was built by a widow who was watching for her son’s ship to return. A fairy woman helped her build the mound so she could see better, and sure enough she climbed up and saw her son’s sails.
Les Pierres Plats
This one translates as the Flat Stones.
This tumulus lies at the southern tip of the Locmariaquer peninsula, right on the beach. Normally you expect a typical passage tomb to have one single passage to one central chamber, possibly with side chambers radiating out. But here in Brittany we kept encountering L-shaped passage tombs or other, more irregular layouts.
Inside were many beautifully decorated stones. I don’t know why I didn’t take any pictures. It’s got that same low ceiling; you can’t stand up.
Again, so many centuries have passed, the land itself has changed, as we know the sea was lower then. Maybe this originally was a mound that got evened out by the wind and sand over the years.
Kerlud dolmen
Mané Rethual
Here’s another L-shaped dolmen, one passage having an enormous capstone more than 36 feet long. It was likely originally part of a huge menhir which was broken up and reused.
There were some fantastic carvings inside this one; I have no idea why I didn’t take pictures.
Mané Lud
Look at the size of this capstone! Carole is standing over on a broken corner. Naturally there’s a little chapel there.
Those squiggles have been outlined in red chalk. That shape appears all over. Are they the horns of an ox? A bird in flight? Or something more symbolic?
Mané means mansion or home, and Lud is the name of a Celtic god, but you can never tell with these names. Carole left a strawberry tart there as an offering to who or whatever might haunt the place.
Kerlescan
This site is a wonderful complex: alignments, a stone circle, standing stones, and a tumulus. The stones seemed to be arranged by height, so they get shorter as you go along.
Most of the time I felt the stones were just stones, inert and solid, nothing more. But sometimes I get the feeling individual stones have a sort of character of their own, if you use a bit of imagination. I feel that way about certain trees. The people who built these sites or who lived among them, they got to know the stones like old friends.
I wandered around the alignments while Carole went off to find the dolmen that was supposed to be in those woods. (She never did find it.) Later on I went back to the car and waited for her, writing in my journal and enjoying the quiet and beauty of the fading light. It was September so crowds were not bad, but the later in the day, the fewer people were around, and I was glad to be alone there. It was getting dark, so eventually I walked down to the woods and found her. She said she’d gotten disoriented and felt a creepy vibe, was relieved to see me. I sensed nothing like this, in fact, I remember this as a particularly peaceful place.
Mostoir tumulus
Another one where if you didn’t know, you’d think it was just another big hill. There are two really big menhirs.
Mané Brisil
This one is part underground, part exposed.
Keriaval dolmen
This one has a central chamber and two side chambers inside. It’s a favorite.
Mané Kerioned passage tomb
Two dolmens (above ground) and this passage tomb would have been within the same mound originally. It is dated to around 3500 BCE. Apparently there is a third dolmen nearby, but we did not see it.
Here are two of the decorated stones inside the passage tomb.
This one has some unusual decorations. Generally you don’t see a lot of straight lines and right angles. Many of these sites were reused a thousand years later by people of a completely different culture, so we have no way of knowing who did the carving, much less why or what it means.
You will notice the streaks of moisture and the wet floor. That’s a good indication that this was carelessly reconstructed and probably reinforced with cement. Intact passage tombs don’t leak. Nor do the ones that have been carefully repaired. The stones are so well joined (without mortar) that none of the groundwater or rain penetrates. Even after 5000 years.
Goerem
We drove out along a very narrow neck of land to a place called Gâvres, which was a military base of some kind. There were gorgeous beaches along the way, but the place was completely empty. We saw no signs of life, no people, nothing.
Apparently this tumulus was buried under sand and completely forgotten until they were digging around in the dunes in 1963 to make more beaches. Imagine their surprise to uncover this! The passage inside is L-shaped.
Kerzerho
Even though it’s right on a busy road, there’s a really nice group here including a field of alignments as well as these guys pictured below. I remember climbing onto a flat stone and laying in the sun for a while, and coming away with a great feeling of peace.
Crucuno dolmen
Hey, don’t let that little 4000-year-old megalith get in the way of your barn!
He looks like a little beetle. Or an armadillo. Snuggling with the barn.
Mané Groh
This one has four side chambers! A really beautiful site.
Rondossec
Here’s a great example of a dolmen in the middle of a village. Thousands of years it’s been sitting there.
Colpo dolmen
It was time to head north back to St. Malo for our ferry back to Ireland, but we passed this one along the way and braved the rain to take a look. It was one large mound with two dolmens inside. You can see the weather was threatening.
As we were leaving our B&B in Carnac, la madame predicted there would be no ferry to Ireland, that there would be a tempête (storm) which would close down all the ports for a couple days. We laughed and said we hoped not. LITTLE DID WE KNOW.
Zut alors, she was right! When we arrived for our ferry, a notice told us the ferry had been cancelled because it was unable to leave port in Cork due to bad weather. We were told to drive 3 hours west to Roscoff and catch another ferry there.
So we set off.
And then the tempête descended on us. It had been windy and rainy all day but now it was serious. We crawled along in the pitch dark going no more than 30 miles an hour in a nonstop downpour. Even with the windshield wipers on high, visibility was nothing. Carole struggled to keep the car on the road as the furious wind yanked and pulled at us. Debris and branches smacked against the car. The road was under water in many places. Once we had to pull around a downed tree partially blocking the road. It took us hours.
When we finally got on the ferry, in spite of being exhausted, I lay awake for hours as the ferry battled its way through the rolling sea. You could feel it being lifted up and then the elevator-dropping feel when it slammed down into a trough between waves with a giant boom. I was glad the bunk bed had a sturdy railing.
By morning, the storm had eased off. The bartender explained that this was the highest high tide of the year, that it’s like this every year, and everybody knows about it. Which explains why the ferry was 3/4 empty. He said the storm had been Force 11 the night before. That’s nearly hurricane level! All thanks to the moon.
Click here to continue with the massively exciting year of 1995.