La Roche-aux-Fées, Essé

La Roche-aux-Fées is a Neolithic passage grave in Essé, Ille-et-Vilaine, some thirty kilometres south-east of Rennes. Around forty purple slate stones form a passage 19,5 metres long in the Seiche valley, three kilometres south-south-east of the village centre. It is dated to the late Neolithic, between 3000 and 2500 BC, or possibly a little earlier.

An exceptional construction

The dolmen is of the so-called Angevin type, which makes it a rarity in Brittany: most monuments of this kind are found in Anjou. An antechamber leads into a large chamber, itself divided into four compartments by stones placed across it. The whole structure stands at most 4,10 metres high. The six largest capstones each weigh between 40 and 45 tonnes, and the slate was quarried from the Forêt du Theil, about 5 kilometres away. At the entrance, a lintel 5,5 metres long rests on two uprights.

No thorough excavation has ever been carried out there. By comparison with similar monuments, it is presumed that it was originally covered by a mound of stones and had a funerary purpose.

Fairies, stones and newlyweds

Le nom vient d’une légende : ce sont les fées qui auraient apporté les blocs. Un récit local ajoute que les fées porteuses, prévenues trop tard que le chantier était fini, auraient lâché leurs pierres en chemin, semant les menhirs des environs. Une autre croyance veut que personne ne trouve deux fois le même nombre de pierres. D’où cette tradition : à la nouvelle lune, deux jeunes mariés font le tour du dolmen en comptant, chacun dans un sens. S’ils arrivent au même total, leur union durera. Au XVIII^e siècle, l’auteur Jean-Baptiste Ogée notait que les « gens sensés » y voyaient plutôt le tombeau d’un général romain.

On the morning of the winter solstice

Each year, at dawn on the winter solstice, crowds gather in front of the monument. When the sky is clear, a patch of light the size of a palm appears on the slab at the back, moves down towards the floor and then slides to the exit. It lasts only a few minutes that morning, as well as the day before and the day after.

This reputation partly explains why the Roche-aux-Fées is so well regarded among energy-site enthusiasts. The weight of the stones and their five millennia do the rest. Did you visit on a December morning or an ordinary day? Your account, at the foot of the page, will interest future visitors.

A monument to be treated with care

Listed as a historic monument since 1840, the dolmen receives roughly 35 000 visitors a year, which weakens the base of some of the stones. In 2018, the ground was raised and a low fence 99 metres across was erected around it. Nearby, other megaliths can be visited, such as the Pierre des Fées menhir at Janzé or the Richebourg menhir at Retiers.