Les Lacs Dolmens at Minerve

Once you’ve explored Minerve – and you should : it’s a charming mediaeval village in a dramatic setting – head out on D10 E1 and over the ponts naturels, turning R onto D148E ’til you come to a large new tourist welcome centre. Do not go up the Fouaso road, you need D147 out of the top end of the carpark. It’s a very twisty 15 minutes up onto le causse (general term for this upland limestone-pavement terrain) until it straightens out and leads to a set of ruined houses: Les Lacs, named for the intermittent ponds that swell up through the pavement after rain.

Before them however the dolmen site is indicated on the left where there’s a wide open trackway for parking. Walk down this trail until you come to a 4-ways and a panel : the horse-riding trail is described – but not the dolmens. Don’t go down the hill,stay contouring and after 5 mins the first dolmen is visible on the left, a few metres off the trail. The second is just a few metres on. Where the other three or four or five are remains unclear. I shall return there shortly and post an update.

I have called this dolmen 1 – as has a previous researcher, see sketch below, ref. dolmen à couloir – as it was the first we came upon.

Above is a view from the rear. Below are two sketches: first dolmen 1

Then below is a sketch of dolmen 2:

pencilled in are two urns or ecuelles – bowls, next are perles, then ossements, bone fragments.

Above: dolmen 2 with a capsone of 2 metres square. It’s a dolmen simple. The side stones are 1.5 m wide and 1.5 high, as is the chevet, or headstone. It faces S-SW.

Above: another view.

And another.

A last view of dolmen 2.

An 1839 etching of dolmen 2 at Les Lacs, complete with wolves – and quite possibly, the same tree.

and a drawing by a M.Magrou, late 19th.c.

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