The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Dolmens de Mane Kerioned

Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech

Fieldnotes

Situated right next to the road, the D768 from Auray to Ploharnel, and less than half a mile north east from the roundabout, cant be missed.
Has anyone else noticed how half the places in Brittany begin with either of two syllables, Plo 'n' ker, can we read into this ancient communications with people of Peckham. Probably not.
If the D768 is in fact an old Roman road I cant understand why it runs nicely and harmlessly by, if the Romans were so very bad why didn't they destroy all three Dolmens?
Did you get that? three Dolmens? three of them in an area no bigger than a big back yard.
The underground one is arguably the most interesting, the stairs that go down to it is only two feet from the side of the road, careful, it's also five or six feet below you too. Passing into the chamber we notice that some one has been chalking in the ancient carvings, these carvings are more abstract than the ones ive seen so far.
The chamber is dry and dark, the sound of passing traffic is muted, if you listen carefully you could perhaps hear mothers voice and distant music.
Above ground you might mistake the massive capstone for a random half buried rock, from some angles there appears to be only two Dolmens here, the underground tomb is most interesting.
Right next to it is the more knackered of the two allee couverts, it is low and only has two capstones. But just a few meters away is the big impressive one, it still has four capstones in place and one of them is really big. Some allee couverts are very long but these seem to have been quite short ones.
There is, it has been said, the remains of a stone circle here too. But i'm just not sure, four stones are all I could see and three of them were in a row not an arc. When these Dolmen were complete and perfect, would all three have been covered by the same mound or would they have all had their separate mounds.
This is a cool and mysterious place that brings to mind lots of questions, as is the whole of the Carnac area. Back home if you see a big stone near a stone circle you cant help wondering if it is some thing, but in Carnac it is usually always something, your just falling over somethings, they are everywhere.
postman Posted by postman
15th August 2014ce
Edited 15th August 2014ce

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