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Brittany

Province

<b>Brittany</b>Posted by MothRoche-aux-Fées © Tim Clark
Also known as:
  • Breizh
  • Bretagne

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34 sites
Cotes d'Armor (22) Departement
55 sites
Finistère (29) Departement
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22 sites
Ille-et-Vilaine (35) Departement
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75 sites
Morbihan (56) including Carnac Departement

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Tourists heave menhirs in France to solve ancient mystery


In the Asterix comic books you only had to drink a magic potion to be able to lift a menhir. But in reality you need vast quantities of muscle power and lots of patience. That is what a group of 30 holiday-makers found out when they heaved on a rope to move a 4... continues...
goffik Posted by goffik
27th July 2010ce

Summer Solstice Event in Brittany


18th - 22nd June 2009 - Stones, Snakes and Sun....

A unique chance to approach the mysterious megaliths of Carnac ! Talks, sunrise and sunset observations, visits on foot, by boat and by helicopter, workshops, exhibitions, films, story telling, music...5 incredible days of wonder and discovery... continues...
Megalithomania Posted by Megalithomania
12th June 2009ce
Edited 12th June 2009ce

Folklore

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In the Cornouaille district of Brittany, where pagan ceremonies still linger in most force, there is a custom which Villemarque believes to be Druidical. In June the youths and maidens above sixteen years of age assemble at some lichen-clad dolmen, the young men wearing green ears of corn in their hats, and the girls having flowers of flax in their bosoms. The flowers are deposited on the dolmen, and from the manner in which they remain or wither the young lovers believe they can divine the constancy of their selected partner. The whole party then dance round the dolmen, and at sunset return to their villages, each young man holding his partner by the tip of the little finger. At whatever time this practice originated, it may be presumed the dolmen was not then considered a sepulchre, as we cannot suppose the youthful population of a district assembled to deposit the offerings of love on a tomb, or to disturb the dwellings of the dead with their joyous revelry.
Mentioned in "The early races of Scotland and their monuments" by Lieut.-Col. Forbes Leslie (1866).
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
4th November 2011ce

The writer is contemplating how stone axeheads might have been used, and concludes from their variety of sizes that they were tools (or the larger ones being weapons).
.. the large celt appears to have been fixed in a cleft stick, or enclosed within the folds of a tough, slender branch [..] It is said that when the Breton peasant finds a celt, called in most countries on the Continent a "thunderstone," he places it in the cleft of a growing branch or sapling, and leaves it there until the wood has formed and hardened round it; but this must have taken a great length of time. We do not, however, find the slightest trace or mark of such a handle on a single celt in this Collection [that of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy].
From p46 in 'A Descriptive Catalogue of the Antiquities ... in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy' by W R Wilde (1857) - on Google Books.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
11th September 2007ce
Edited 11th September 2007ce

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Legends and Romances of Brittany


Chapter 2 of Lewis Spence's 1917 book, Legends and Romances of Brittany, Menhirs and Dolmen
fitzcoraldo Posted by fitzcoraldo
1st September 2007ce
Edited 1st September 2007ce

Latest posts for Brittany

Showing 1-10 of 1,285 posts. Most recent first | Next 10

Menhir de Gargantua (Saint-Suliac) (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Fieldnotes

Visited this on a cycling holiday in Brittany this summer. Just before the bend in the D7 going out of Saint-Suliac, walk up the farm track to the right, and you will see a home-made sign to "Menhir". That leads you into an orchard (there was nobody around when we were there) surrounding this massive stone. It is a very rugged and irregular shape. Whether really a menhir or just a prominent erratic I know not, though the maps show it as prehistoric. There was a huge pumpkin nearby with the name Gargantua carved into it. Menhir a true word spoken in jest, as Obelix might have said (in English translation). UncleRob Posted by UncleRob
8th November 2011ce

Les Pierres Plats (Allée-Coudée) — Images (click to view fullsize)

<b>Les Pierres Plats</b>Posted by CianMcLiam CianMcLiam Posted by CianMcLiam
23rd August 2011ce

Dolmens de Mane Kerioned (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) — Images

<b>Dolmens de Mane Kerioned</b>Posted by CianMcLiam CianMcLiam Posted by CianMcLiam
23rd August 2011ce

Alignements de Petit-Ménec — Images

<b>Alignements de Petit-Ménec</b>Posted by CianMcLiam CianMcLiam Posted by CianMcLiam
23rd August 2011ce

Er Lannic (Cromlech (France and Brittany)) — Fieldnotes

Visited 4th May 2011

On the islet of Er-Lannic in the Gulf of Morbihan on the south coast of Brittany, lie the remains of two cromlechs. Originally they would have stood on a small hillock on the mainland, but as sea levels have been steadily rising for the past 7,000 years they have now become partly submerged, Er-Lannic having been cut off from the mainland since Roman times.

The northern site is a flattened circle, which would have been comprised of up to 60 stones, the stones standing almost contiguous with each other, similar to a kerb circle, but being much larger stones than are typically seen in that type of monument, ranging in height from 6' up to 17' 4". There were also two tall outliers to the east and west of the northern circle, in line with the tallest stone in the ring, both of which are now submerged.

The southern site is horseshoe shaped, and is now completely submerged, it has a diameter of around 200 feet, with an opening to the east. It was first discovered in 1872 when Closmadeuc, an archaeologist from Vannes, visited the north ring at very low tide and noticed the tips of some more stones exposed above the sea. At the southern tip of the submerged cromlech there would have been a gigantic stone pillar, called 'men-ar-gou' or 'La Roche du Forgeron', meaning 'the blacksmith's stone' by fishermen.

Le Rouzic excavating in the 1920's found around each stone a cist containing charcoal, animal bones, worked flints, pottery, and a lot of polished axes. Two stones are carved with axes and a yoke, and one of the uprights' packing stones has nine cupmarks (according to Le Rouzic, arranged to form the outline of the constellation Ursa Major). A plan was also made of the submerged site, documenting the layout of the southern horseshoe, and detailing a possible three sided and unroofed Cove within the submerged south-eastern section of the north ring.

Burl suggests there are possible alignments within the monument to astronomical events, (p. 256 'Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland & Brittany' - Aubrey Burl 1995) and that lunar alignments with the major northern moonrise and moonset could be drawn along the South-East to North West axis, which aligns directly between the tallest stone in the northern ring, and the submerged cove.

When Aubrey Burl said this one was 'very private' he wasn't joking! Although I don't like making fieldnotes unless I'm actually in the site, with Er-Lannic this is as close as I'm likely to get without my own boat. Taking the last trip of the day to Gavr'inis was a lovely end to a day of megalith hunting, the last boat trip to that amazing cairn also comes in close to Er-Lannic. It seems so strange to see the stones protruding from the sea like a sunken ruin, you can only imagine what the scale of the monument as a whole would have been like when it was intact.

I first caught sight of the huge pillar in the northern ring when we were on Gavr'inis waiting to enter the cairn, and Er-Lannic seemed tantalisingly close across the immensely fast flowing current separating the two islands. As we came in closer more stones in the cromlech became apparent, all seemingly providing handy perches for the resident sea birds. Ellen took photos as I struggled to keep the video camera steady, and avoid too many of our fellow boat passengers getting in the way of the shots!

Although it's now a bird sanctuary I'd still love to set foot on the island and stand amongst the stones, their power seems undiminished despite the advance of the sea. Although bobbing nearby in a motor launch full of tourists is not the best way to soak up the atmosphere of a site, on Er-Lannic it reaches out to you and is irrepressible, a partly sad, partly foreboding feeling of an isolated place, the cormorants perched atop the stones like shadowy guardians warning away visitors to this sacred enclosure.
Ravenfeather Posted by Ravenfeather
14th August 2011ce

Er Lannic (Cromlech (France and Brittany)) — Images

<b>Er Lannic</b>Posted by Ravenfeather<b>Er Lannic</b>Posted by Ravenfeather<b>Er Lannic</b>Posted by Ravenfeather Ravenfeather Posted by Ravenfeather
13th August 2011ce

Lestriguiou (Allee-Couverte) — Images

<b>Lestriguiou</b>Posted by bogman<b>Lestriguiou</b>Posted by bogman bogman Posted by bogman
10th August 2011ce
Showing 1-10 of 1,285 posts. Most recent first | Next 10