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Origin and history

The covered street of Grand Island, also known as Ty-Lia or Ty-ar-C'horrandoned, is a megalithic monument located in the center of the island, in the town of Pleumeur-Bodou (Côtes-d的Armor, Brittany). Ranked as a historical monument since January 23, 1956, it dates from the Neolithic and consists of a funeral chamber oriented east-west, 8.50 m long and 1.60 m wide. Its walls, consisting of four orthostats to the north and five to the south (height: 1 m to 1.40 m), are covered with two massive slabs. A vestibule, now extinct, once extended the entrance.

The excavations carried out in 1866, 1868, 1909 and 1910 revealed an archaeological furniture today lost: four polished axes, flints, black pottery teasses, a bronze disc and an iron object. These artifacts suggest funeral and ritual use over centuries. The high slabs surrounding the monument could be the remains of a peristalith (tumulus support structure) or of an internal system to distribute earth thrusts.

According to local legend, this alley would be the home of the dwarfs C'horrandoned. On full moon nights, they danced with passers-by and predicted the future of pregnant women. If time prevented the dance, they forced visitors to recite the days of the week — under penalty of disappearance if they pronounced Sunday. This folklore illustrates the symbolic importance of megaliths in pre-Christian Breton beliefs.

Consisting of local granite, the driveway is close to the old Rohic quarry. Its present state no longer makes it possible to observe the vestibule described by archaeologist Jean L-Helgouach in 1965. The two cover tables, varying thicknesses (0.25 m to 0.50 m), protect a structure whose exact function (collective burial, place of worship) remains partially enigmatic, for lack of complete archives on excavations.

The site is accessible on Grand Island, at approximately 10 Rue du Dolmen, Pleumeur-Bodou. Its classification in 1956 highlights its heritage interest, both in the study of the Armenian Neolithic and in the preservation of Breton mythological narratives. The historical sources come mainly from the works of Étienne Patte (1918) and from the surveys of the Cultural Institute of Brittany (1991).

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