Le Couperon dolmen and guardhouse



Le Couperon is a dolmen in the Parish of St Martin. Le Couperon is about an eight-meters long capstoned chamber that a long mound had originally covered. It was surrounded by a ring of eighteen outer stones, known as peristaliths. Le Couperon is c.5000-year old Neolithic dolmen.

The site was first excavated in 1868. By that time the capstones had fallen into the chamber. The excavators lifted these and a porthole stone, and restored the dolmen to what the excavators believed was its original form. In 1919, the Société Jersiaise moved the porthole stone to its current position at the eastern end of the chamber. However, archeologists believe that originally porthole stone may have stood within the chamber, dividing it into two segments of unequal length, each with its own entrance. Finds at the site included a few flint flakes and pottery fragments.

The dolmen stands within a few metres of the Le Couperon guardhouse. The guardhouse was built in 1689 in the parish of Saint Martin, Jersey, of local stone, with brick lintels. It supported a battery on the headland above as a magazine and shelter for the members of the Jersey militia that served the battery. The battery commanded Rozel Bay and by 1812 consisted of two 24-pounder muzzle-loading guns that fired over a low wall, which has long disappeared.