Jersey's Spiritual Landscape
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Unlock the Island with Jersey Heritage audio tours La Pouquelaye de Faldouët P 04 Built around 6,000 years ago, the dolmen at La Pouquelaye de Faldouët consists of a 5 metre long passage leading into an unusual double chamber. At the entrance you will notice the remains of two dry stone walls and a ring of upright stones that were constructed around the dolmen. Walk along the entrance passage and enter the spacious circular main Jersey’s maritime Jersey’s military chamber. It is unlikely that this was ever landscape landscape roofed because of its size and it is easy Immerse Download the FREE audio tour Immerse Download the FREE audio tour to imagine prehistoric people gathering yourself in from www.jerseyheritage.org yourself in from www.jerseyheritage.org the history the history here to worship and perform rituals. and stories and stories of Jersey of Jersey La Hougue Bie N 04 The 6,000-year-old burial site at Supported by Supported by La Hougue Bie is considered one of Tourism Development Fund Tourism Development Fund the largest and best preserved Neolithic passage graves in Europe. It stands under an impressive mound that is 12 metres high and 54 metres in diameter. The chapel of Notre Dame de la Clarté Jersey’s Maritime Landscape on the summit of the mound was Listen to fishy tales and delve into Jersey’s maritime built in the 12th century, possibly Jersey’s spiritual replacing an older wooden structure. past. Audio tour and map In the 1990s, the original entrance Jersey’s Military Landscape to the passage was exposed during landscape new excavations of the mound. Hear the spymaster’s tale about Jersey’s military history. This allowed confirmation of theories Audio tour and map Immerse Download the FREE audio tour that the entrance of the tomb was from www.jerseyheritage.org aligned with sunrise on the equinox. yourself in Now twice a year, at the spring and Elizabeth Castle the history autumn equinoxes, the first rays of An entertaining tale about the castle and its and stories sun penetrate to the very back of inhabitants. Audio tour only the tomb. So, as well as being a of Jersey site of great spiritual significance, La Hougue Bie acted as a giant sundial Mont Orgueil Castle that guided Neolithic people as to when to plant and harvest their crops. Jersey’s iconic castle brought to life with tales of kings, For early farmers, fertility and the knights and legends. Audio tour only annual regeneration of living things were crucial to their survival. Supported by Download for FREE at www.jerseyheritage.org Tourism Development Fund For the earliest inhabitants of the Island, certain places had a special significance and these were often marked by erecting dolmens or standing stones to highlight the spiritual nature of the place. This guide and accompanying audio tour looks at the Island’s spiritual heritage. Many of the places on this tour are owned by La Société Jersiaise and most are free to access. Le Mont Ubé M 05 southern part of the enclosed area. This impressive monument consists of This is a late Neolithic gallery grave a passage, 5 metres in length, leading and was built around 5,000 years ago. into an oval chamber. Walk through Two parallel walls of stone slabs were the entrance passage and notice the erected to create a rectangular sheer scale of the stone blocks from chamber and these were covered with which the dolmen is constructed. capstones, seven of which are still in Considerable skill, determination and place. The line of smaller stones to the teamwork would have been required north is all that remains of a wall that may have formed the edge of a mound to haul the blocks of stone up the hill in the Island. Many were destroyed by The Ossuary G 04 of occupation and ritual activity and erect them in position. that once covered the monument. later generations who used the stones for A rectangular grave excavated in 1923 by Jersey’s first farmers in the early building. Place names like‘Hougue’ (which found to contain the disarticulated Neolithic period (around 4,800 BC) To one side of the main chamber you La Sergenté F 05 means‘mound’) and‘Pouquelaye’ (or remains of about 20 people. through to the Bronze Age and will notice two large granite uprights. This passage grave was built around ‘pouclée’), a Jersey word meaning‘stone(s) continuing to the Roman period. 6,500 years ago during the Neolithic These are all that remain of the five of the fairies’, sometimes indicate the site Les Monts Grantez G 02 original uprights that formed four period and is possibly the earliest of monuments that have been lost. The passage grave at Les Monts Large quantities of pottery, animal small compartments at the western dolmen in the Island. The word‘dolmen’ is Grantez dates back to Neolithic times bone and stone tools have been end of the chamber. Each of the Breton in origin and means‘stone table’. Les Blanches Banques G 04 (between 4000 and 3250 BC). First discovered during excavations here. compartments was closed at the front Menhirs are single upright stones discovered in 1839, it was excavated Among the tools found were a by a low slab. The Neolithic people that built this that are found over much of western in 1912 by La Société Jersiaise. number of unfinished stone axes dolmen were the first to make a Europe and are particularly common which suggests that this may have Ville-ès-Nouaux K 04 significant mark on the landscape. in Brittany. They are usually assumed The main chamber is oval in shape been an axe production centre. In 1923, St Andrew’s Church was built They cleared woodland to grow to be ritual in purpose but we can only and is now open to the air. The Examples of axes made from rock from on a site adjacent to a Neolithic dolmen crops and graze their animals, and guess at what they symbolised. capstones were lost from this area this site have been found in Guernsey, and an Iron Age cremation urnfield. they also built these impressive stone before the site was excavated. The Alderney and Sark. monuments. The dolmens that have The Great Menhir G 04 skeletons of six adults and a child were The earliest structure on this site is survived to the present day are only a The most southerly of the three discovered here. They were all in a Le Dolmen du Couperon P 02 the long rectangular chamber in the fraction of the original number found menhirs to be found on the dunes at crouched position, lying on their sides The 8 metre long gallery grave at Les Blanches Banques is The Great and accompanied by quantities of Le Couperon was built around Menhir, which was re-erected in 1922 limpet shells, the teeth and bones of 5,000 years ago. Originally, the tomb and stands just over 2 metres in height. cattle, deer, horse, pig and goat and was covered by a long mound. small piles of brightly coloured pebbles. This has been removed but much The Little Menhir G 04 of the peristalith, or surrounding This is the central of the three stones, Another further skeleton of an adult wall of stones, has survived to form a standing 2.3 metres high (it’s bigger was found in a seated position in a rectangular enclosure for the tomb. than The Great Menhir), and was niche at the end of the entrance completely buried by sand before its passage, propped up against the wall When the site was first excavated in excavation in 1921. and kept in place by a heap of stones. 1868 the capstones were found to have fallen into the chamber. These The Broken Menhir G 04 Le Pinacle F 01 were lifted up and replaced as The most northerly stone is known The site of Le Pinacle is visually capstones, the dividing porthole as The Broken Menhir. As the name spectacular and takes its name from stone along with them. In 1919 it was suggests, the stone was broken when a massive stack of granite which rises removed as a capstone and placed first discovered, the top half lying flat out of the sea to dominate the in its current position, but originally it on the sand while the bottom half surrounding landscape. This is a would have stood half way along the stood in its original position. remarkable place that shows evidence gallery to divide the space in two. Ronez Sorel La Houle Grosnez La Grève au Lançon Le Fosse (Plémont) Vicq Mourier Plémont Bay Creux Gros Grosnez Castle (ruins) To the Paternosters Belle Hougue WC ST. 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