Dolmen de Mane-Kerioned/Burial Chambers in Brittany

Nov200921

By admin

6

Dolmen de Mane-Kerioned/Burial Chambers in Brittany

Posted in General || Tagged Under : ancient, brittany, burial, chamber, france, pre-history, standing, stoness

Click the images for larger size.

Driving back from the South Brittany coast past some fabulous roundabouts we happened across a sign for ‘Dolmens’. Not having a clue what dolmens were we decided to go and investigate.

You park your car in a small pull-in area just off the main road and walk a short way through the forest back towards the road. Through the trees you catch a glimpse of some very large stones. Once you’re into the clearing, which is literally right next to the main road, you can see 3 burial chambers which are the ‘dolmens’. 2 are above ground while 1 is underground.

First we walked down some very old stone steps into the underground burial chamber – there are no lights and very little light manages to filter in from outside. It is quite small and you have to bend down to get in, it is surprisingly dry. Not much to see in there you’re thinking to yourself, you’re just about to turn around and back out of the chamber when you notice what looks like scratchings or graffitti on the wall. Well it may well be graffitti, but it is VERY old graffitti. Carvings in the stone like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

Back above ground the dolmens are impressive in their size. It would have been a huge effort to get those stones in place today never mind 5500 years ago.

There wasn’t much information given at the site – this is all there was – there is a section in English as well:

It is an atmospheric place and you soon don’t hear the traffic speeding by on the main road when you get caught up in exploring this little site. So next time you’re passing stop by and have a wander and a wonder at this little haven next to the main road.

The site is close to Carnac where the standing stones of Carnac are located. There are many such dolmens, tumulus and standing stones in the area – there is a museum at Carnac with maps of the locations of all these prehistoric sites.

Share on Facebook

You can leave a response below, or trackback from your own site.