Dolmen du Bois des Roches, dolmen in Beaulieu, France

The dolmen du Bois des Roches is a Neolithic stone burial chamber near the town of Beaulieu in France. The structure consists of large flat and upright stones forming a small chamber, set amid rural landscape with natural vegetation and rolling terrain.

The dolmen was built thousands of years ago during the Neolithic period by early people using simple tools without metal. The site was officially designated as a historical monument in 1889 and has remained protected since.

The dolmen is one of seventeen megaliths shared between Beaulieu (thirteen) and Saint-André-de-Cruzières (four) in the Ardèche. It is also called the dolmen du Bois des Roches, and its number-one status within the Chaumettes group, or Ranc Levé group, links it to the wider set of tombs on the plateau. Visitors can see the pale grey capstone resting at a tilt on rough uprights patched with lichen.

The dolmen du Bois des Roches lies in scrub and dry grass on the Beaulieu side of the Chaumettes group, whose other slabs stand across the boundary in Saint-André-de-Cruzières. The capstone is tilted and rests at an angle on its uprights, so watch your footing on the loose pale stones around the base. As a classified monument, the stones must not be climbed or moved.

The dolmen is also known as dolmen no. 1, or dolmen du Bois des Roches, and was the first of the Chaumettes group to be described, by the Ardèche geologist and speleologist Jules de Malbos (1782–1867). It was classified as a monument historique in 1889. The Chaumettes group as a whole numbers seventeen dolmens, thirteen in Beaulieu and four in Saint-André-de-Cruzières.