Our Blog - Bretagne Trip - Summer 2021 - Day 15 (Megaliths/Menhirs and Dolmens)

I'll start this blog with a little lesson on Megaliths vs Menhirs vs Dolmens. A megalith is a large prehistoric stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. The word was first used in 1849 in reference to Stonehenge and derives from the Ancient Greek. Most megaliths were erected between the Neolithic period to the Bronze Age. In general, they are found in Europe and Africa, although there are some in Asia as well. Megalith tends to be a general term with other terms being a bit more focused. Menhir is used in Western Europe for a single upright stone erected in prehistoric times (also called a Standing Stone). You could have multiple of these Menhir placed in relation to another, such as the ones here in Erdeven or the famous Carnac Stones (you'll see those another day), and then they are called Alignments. A Dolmen is normally a tomb or burial chamber that is formed by putting two or more upright stones with a flat stone on top, forming a chamber below it.

We did a walk this morning just a 5-minute drive from where we are staying in Erdeven, and there is a nice trail with a set of Megaliths. The first set of stones was just at the parking area, called the Alignments of Kerzérho. These menhir date from Neolithic period. There are quite a few standing stones just right off of the parking area, and then we took a path to go see a few more.

Lucy was just SO excited, she had to roll around in the middle of them.

More menhir heading towards to path.

And then Lucy decided to check one of the ones that was laying down on the ground a little bit closer.

A little bit down the path, we came across the Table of the Sacrifice. The expression "Table of the sacrifice" is due to a legend that the druids would have performed sacrifices to their Gods on this lying menhir, having the appearance of a table. We had Lucy check it out, but we decided that there would be sacrifice today! Seems that Lucy wasn't convinced that no sacrifice was the correct course of action.

The last pictures as well as this one should give you an idea of the size, since both Tom and the cyclists were very close to the rocks.

These are Dolmens, and you can clearly see that the upright rocks and the top "cap" rock form a chamber underneath. There were 2 very distinct dolmens although the first one could actually have been a couple different chambers.

Lucy also checked these out and she thought it would be a cool idea to be able to be buried there.