FRANCE HOLIDAY PART 3 | A NEOLITHIC DOLMEN AND LA ROCHE L'ABEILLE VILLAGE
In part 3 of my series documenting my family holiday in France, I explore a Neolithic (Stone Age) Dolmen on the outskirts of a tiny village called La Roche L' Abeille. There are loads of these dotted all over the world, this being the second time I have explored one myself, the first being Kitt's Coty House in Kent.
We then drove into the village for a wander around to explore, including the parish church and stopped for a drink in the local cafe/ bar. Once again, the weather was lovely, perhaps a little too hot at times!
Music:
Doagh Holestone, Lovestone, Neolithic Standing Stone, Co Antrim
I've biked about 15 miles north of Belfast to the small village of Doagh near Ballyclare Co Antrim. I'm about half a mile outside Doagh on the Ballymena road. The Doagh standing stone,megalith or holestone can be found at the end of the Deerpark road that heads off the main road up to the high ground to the right.
' A circular, chamfered hole some 10 cms in diameter at groin height was made by boring from both sides of the slab, as is usual in such monuments. In a significant degeneration of early progenerative practices lovers plighted their troth by passing a white handkerchief through the hole. This stone is echoed by another, larger slab with a similar groin-height hole,
straight across the North Channel at Crows in Galloway .'
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The Neolithic Holestone
On the crest of a hill sits a Bronze Age standing stone or hole stone. It is 1.5 metres high, with a 10cm diameter hole cut into it. We can only speculate as to why the Holestone was created and its original purpose.
The Legend of the Holestone
The Holestone is an ancient Celtic Stone that has attracted visitors, seeking eternal love and happiness, to the Borough since the 18th century. Upon reaching the Holestone, couples undertake a traditional ceremony where the woman reaches her hand through the circular hole and her partner takes it, thus pledging themselves to love each other forever.'
' From The Dublin Penny Journal, Volume 1, Number 43, April 20, 1833
On a rocky eminence in the townland of Ballyvernish, about one mile from the village of Doagh, stands a large whinstone slab, called the Holestone. This stone is upwards of five feet in height above the ground, and near the base six feet eight inches in circumference, and ten inches in thickness. At about three feet from the ground there is a round hole perforated through it, sufficient to admit a common-sized hand; it has evidently been made by art, but there is neither record nor tradition respecting the purpose for which it was erected, nor by whom. '