Dolmen de Boutouiller, appelé aussi dolmen de Keranguez ou de Kerivin
MonumentHidden Treasure
Dolmen de Boutouiller, appelé aussi dolmen de Keranguez ou de Kerivin, located in Saint-Pol-de-Léon (Département 29), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Saint-Pol-de-Léon, Département 29, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.6566, -3.9597
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00090426
A Neolithic megalith with many names, the Boutouiller dolmen has stood guard over Léon for 5,000 years, bearing witness to the first builders of Armorican Brittany.
History
In the heart of the Léon region of Finistère, bathed in Atlantic sunlight, the Boutouiller dolmen - also known as the Keranguez or Kerivin dolmens - is one of the most eloquent reminders of the Neolithic settlement of the Saint-Pol-de-Léon peninsula. Listed as a Historic Monument since 1909, it is one of a constellation of megaliths dotted around north-west Brittany, a tangible legacy of an agropastoral civilisation that profoundly transformed the Armorican landscape between the 5th and 3rd millennia BC. What sets the Boutouiller dolmen apart from many other Breton megaliths is, first and foremost, the richness of its place names. Three names coexist, each referring to a different locality, a sign that the monument has long served as a geographical and symbolic landmark for local farming communities. This polysemy of names testifies to a deep-rooted memorial presence, where the prehistoric stone has become an integral part of the daily lives of successive generations, to the point of becoming a structuring element of the land. The visitor experience is above all sensory and contemplative. Approaching the dolmen from the sunken lanes of Léon means crossing an agricultural landscape where granite outcrops everywhere, as if the earth itself were asserting its mineral nature. The monument's massive slabs, laid with a precision that defies the centuries, invite us to meditate on the techniques and beliefs of men whose only tools were collective intelligence and physical strength. The surrounding countryside, with its Léonard bocage and sea horizons that can sometimes be glimpsed in the distance, lends the site an atmosphere of serenity that is almost timeless. Far from the tourist crowds of the great covered walkways of Morbihan, the Boutouiller dolmen offer an authentic face-to-face encounter with Breton prehistory, away from the mass circuits.
Architecture
The Boutouiller dolmen are typical of the simple dolmens of the Armorican Atlantic coast, built in the local bluish-grey granite that erosion and lichens have gradually covered with a mineral patina of great beauty. The structure is based on the universal principle of the chamber megalith: several orthostats - vertical support slabs - form the side and front walls of a burial space, on which rest one or more horizontal covering tables, the bedside slabs. Together, they form a sepulchral chamber with a roughly rectangular floor plan, oriented along an east-west axis in keeping with the dominant practices of Armorican Neolithic builders. The materials used were exclusively local: coarse-grained granite from Léon, which is particularly resistant to the elements, largely explains the remarkable preservation of the monument after five millennia of exposure to the elements. The slabs, probably extracted from natural granite chaos or from veins outcropping near the site, were shaped by percussion, exploiting the natural cleavage planes in the rock. The covering table, estimated to cover just a few square metres, is the centrepiece of the whole, both a technical challenge for its builders and a symbol of the permanence intended for this place of remembrance. Originally, like almost all Neolithic dolmens, the monument was probably covered by a tumulus of earth and stones that concealed the burial chamber, leaving only an orientated access corridor visible. Natural erosion and successive human interventions have removed this earthen mantle, exposing the stone skeleton we admire today - giving these funerary architectures their characteristic, photogenic appearance.
Related Figures
Bâtisseurs néolithiques du Léon (Ve-IIIe millénaire av. J.-C.) — communauté agropastorale érigean ce monument funéraire collectifProsper Mérimée (1803-1870) — inspecteur général des Monuments Historiques, pionnier de la protection des mégalithes bretonsPaul du Châtellier (1833-1911) — archéologue finistérien majeur, recenseur et défenseur du patrimoine mégalithique léonardSaint Pol Aurélien (VIe siècle) — évêque fondateur de Saint-Pol-de-Léon, dont l'évangélisation du Léon transforma le regard porté sur les monuments préhistoriques
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Dolmen de Boutouiller, appelé aussi dolmen de Keranguez ou de Kerivin located?
Dolmen de Boutouiller, appelé aussi dolmen de Keranguez ou de Kerivin is located in Saint-Pol-de-Léon, Département 29 department, Bretagne region, France.
Is Dolmen de Boutouiller, appelé aussi dolmen de Keranguez ou de Kerivin open to visitors?
Dolmen de Boutouiller, appelé aussi dolmen de Keranguez ou de Kerivin is currently closed to visitors.