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EAST OF
BRITTANY
part IV

...continued

 

High up on the vista-rich watershed
between the beautiful rivers Lot and Célé, a rough-hewn monolithic limestone cross stands a few metres from a dolmen on the Pilgrim Road from Figeac and the shrines of Western Auvergne to Santiago de Compostela. This is one of the most poetic dolmens of France.

click for more pictures

Dolmen de Pégouriés or de Pech Laglaire, Gréalou (Lot)

On another causse, not far away to the West, is another well-exposed tomb,
with a large long cairn, looking very like a tomb of the Irish limestone uplands.

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Dolmen de Pieyro Clabado, Larnagol (Lot)

But many of the tombs on the limestone plateaux lurk - well-camouflaged by moss or lichen -
in the open, primeval woodland of oak, sweet chestnut and juniper
which covers thousands of square miles.

Dolmen de Parra, Limogne (Lot) with its mossy roofstones.

Dolmen de Parra seen from the rear

Dolmen de Joncas, Limogne (Lot)

Another mossy "box-dolmen" at Rastouillet, Limogne (Lot)

 

Dolmen des Quatre Routes, Saint-Jean-de-Laur (Lot)

 

Dolmen du Lac d'Aurié, Limogne (Lot) whose roof-slab weighs 18 tonnes.

click to for more

The dolmens around Livernon in the Lot tend to have enormous roof-stones. That of the Dolmen de la Pierre-Martine (broken and now supported on two concrete pillars) is seven metres long and weighs some 20 tonnes.

The quarry from which these slabs were extracted is nearby.

 

A better-preserved and almost as large example (with chamfered semi-porthole and natural perforations in the massive side-stones) is at Roux.

Dolmen de Roux, Livernon (Lot)

click for a (high-resolution) detail of this tomb

 

Dolmen de Custalou, Grèzes (Lot)

another (high-resolution) view of this tomb

In the West of the neighbouring département to the E (Aveyron), there are several dolmens of similar appearance - including one, very rare, surviving intact (virgo intacta!) and almost invisible in a wood, buried in its cairn. The tops of three roofstones are, however, a give-away to the keen dolmen-hunter!

click to enlarge
Foissac (Aveyron)

On the other hand - as already indicated, some tombs have been partially-reconstructed with the aid of concrete. In the case of the Dolmen de Vaour the concrete has been replaced recently with machined stone supports.

Vaour (Tarn)
Detail of underside of broken, re-erected capstone

Vaour (Tarn)
Chamfered «semi-porthole» which is a feature of many dolmens of the Causses

Where the Western Causses descend into the plain which divides them from the Pyrenees lie less-box-like tombs such as Le Tombeau du Géant (The Giant's Grave) near Saint-Cirq (Tarn-et-Garonne )

more (high-resolution) photos of this tomb

or the Dolmen de Saint-Pierre at Sainte-Cécile-du Cayrou, Verdier (Tarn)...

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...not far from which, on the other side of the village, is a large limestone slab, some 2.5 metres high and wide, but only half a metre thick, close to a little tree-lined tributary of the river Aveyron - which may be the remnant of a huge dolmen.

click for more

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The départements of the Tarn and the Aveyron feature the curious megaliths known as Statues-Menhirs, many of which have now been preserved under cover, notably at the Musée Fenaille at Rodez.

 

However, one curious and atypical example survives by the roadside at La Croix-Salvetat (Tarn).

click to enlarge

This looks as if it might be a prehistoric, anthropomorphic menhir (forerunner of the statues-menhirs ?) Christianised much later with a crudely-incised cross. On the other hand, it might be a Christian monument, recalling the Irish "face-crosses" and, in particular, the anthropomorphic cross on the rock-monastery of Skellig Michael in county Kerry.

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On a wooded causse near Prayssac
in the département of the Lot above the river are several megalithic tombs, which can be seen along a "Dolmen Trail" that also includes several gariottes or corbelled stone huts. One of the former is a typical box-dolmen.

But before you come to it on the trail you pass a megalithic complex which is marked Chaos on the trail, but Menhirs on the map. The complex is neither standing-stones nor chaos, but the amazing remains of three cyclopean tombs known as Los Tres Peyres (Les Trois Pierres), whose salient features are three up-ended capstones some four metres high and broad - which may never have covered the violently disturbed tombs behind them, or which may have been up-ended by a heroic act of vandalism such as occurred at Ballynoe (county Down) in Ireland. These tombs are quite different from others on the causses - and indeed from any I have seen elsewhere.

high-resolution pictures of Los Tres Peyres

a fine allée-couverte more recently wrecked >

part four >>

 

Click here to see a group of monuments around Arras
in the Pas-de-Calais

 

Click here to visit

two of the most imposing tombs in Languedoc-Roussillon.

 

Some approximate dolmen and menhir statistics in départements of Languedoc and Roussillon (by courtesy of Bruno Marc): Hérault: 550 dolmens, 150 menhirs Gard: 300 dolmens, 300 menhirs Lozère: 400-500 dolmens, 300 menhirs Ardèche: 750 dolmens Tarn: 50 dolmens, over 100 menhirs, 60 statue-menhirs Dating from: 3500 to 2500 BCE (with frequent later re-use)   Some dolmens and menhirs in Lozère on another website.

 

return to part one

go back to part three

 

For a neat, well-illustrated itinerary- Guide to megaliths on the limestone plateaux, see 'Statues, menhirs et dolmens des Causses et du Haut-Languedoc' by Bruno Marc Les Presses du Languedoc (Patrimoine Archéologique) ISBN 2859982256 - price 16,77 euros and available through amazon.fr.

plus

• Dolmens de l'Ardèche (2001)

• Dolmens et menhirs des Cévennes (2003)