Dolmen de Goëren, dolmen in Gâvres, France

The Goëren dolmen is a covered dolmen near the mouth of the Blavet at Gâvres, Morbihan. Its plan forms a right angle: a 9.25 m corridor runs north, lined with nine non-joining orthostats linked by dry-stone walls of pebbles, and leads through a granite door slab to a 17 m chamber oriented west and divided into four compartments by transverse slabs. The whole is sealed under black clay and an oblong tumulus 28 m long and 2.20 m high.

The monument was built around 2450 before the common era and ranks among the region's oldest megalithic structures. It was discovered during construction work in 1963 and excavated between 1964 and 1967 under archaeologist Jean L'Helgouach, leading to its classification as a historical monument in 1965 and transfer to state ownership in 1970.

The name Goëren comes from the Breton Taol-vaen ar Weremm. Ten wall slabs carry carvings of rectangular cartouches with a V-curved top, split by a vertical line and filled with dots, circles or strokes; no two are alike, and they are read as idols. The chamber holds more decoration than the corridor, and the second left pillar of the corridor is also carved.

The monument lies in a residential subdivision near the mouth of the Blavet; the entrance corridor opens to the south and the chamber runs west, so the low doorway is best seen in morning light. The covering slabs at the entrance were displaced in antiquity, leaving a partly collapsed opening. The chamber is 17 m long and only about 1.60 m wide, with headroom of roughly 1.25 to 1.50 m, so tall visitors should expect to stoop.

The chamber is split into four compartments by transverse slabs, and the last one is sealed by two parallel stones across its full width. Archaeologists link this double closure to a single use of the tomb. Ten slabs carry carvings of rectangular cartouches with a V-curved top, filled with dots, circles and lines, read as idols.