The region · Stones & stories
Enigmatic standing stones, hollowed rocks and giants left by glaciers: eight encounters with the landscape’s memory, from the Ormonts to the Chablais.
La Forclaz · Ormont-Dessous
A solitary 4.7-metre silhouette in a meadow at about 1,408 metres. Listed in 1970 as a prehistoric menhir, it is also described as a “natural menhir”: whether humans erected it remains uncertain.
Jean-Adrien Lavanchy linked the stone to light and shadows around the Tours d’Aï and de Mayen at the summer solstice. A fascinating symbolic interpretation, without established proof of a prehistoric calendar or Celtic origin.
Les Diablerets · Ormont-Dessus
The canton lists a glacial erratic under this name, protected since 1959. The SSDI inventory places a Pierre à Bridel on the Mauvais Glacier moraine, at around 2,700 metres.
The SSDI notes confusion with the Pierre aux Fées in an old list of historic monuments. References to foot-shaped marks therefore require caution: the two stones should not be conflated or taken as evidence of prehistoric footprints.
Fenil Durand · secteur du Pillon
Above the Pillon road, beside the old path, this roughly four-metre boulder bears around ten hollows shaped like the soles of feet. The SSDI record places it at about 1,420 metres, at Fenil Durand.
Its name invites a fairy tale, but the marks are classified as natural weathering features. They are not confirmed prehistoric human or dinosaur footprints. The documented location is Fenil Durand; a location near the Dar waterfall has not been confirmed.
Isenau · près du chalet La Crête
An old description records four aligned cupules on a stone near Chalet La Crête, in the station area at around 1,760 metres. Cupules are small hollows, not a trail of fossilised footprints.
The inventory suggests it may have been moved or destroyed when the area above the chalet was redeveloped. Its current position and survival remain unverified. It is presented as a documented record, not a guaranteed visit.
Au-dessus d’Yvorne · secteur Vers-la-Ryt
Also called the “Druids’ Stone”, it is associated with two neighbouring small limestone blocks bearing a round hollow and a rectangular basin, described in the SSDI inventory.
The hollows and the rock’s nickname evoke ancient rituals. Their purpose and date are not established by the sources presented here: the link to druids remains an interpretation.
Bex · forêt du Montet
This limestone giant was transported by the Avançon glacier. Jean de Charpentier, director of the salt mines in the 19th century, named it and used it to support glacial theory.
Its unusual position posed a real scientific puzzle: how could such a rock move? The glacial explanation transformed our understanding of the Alps. The Salt Trail signs mark a detour to the boulder.
Bex · près du Bloc Monstre
Near the Bloc Monstre, this other huge rock was also deposited by the Avançon glacier. Both boulders intrigued 19th-century geologists.
Among the trees, imagine the glacier that once occupied this place. Discover their shared history at the Dévens erratic-boulder geosite: a geological story rather than a menhir legend.
Monthey · Chablais valaisan
A glacial boulder about 19 metres long and 9 metres high. Its size is striking, but its survival tells a human story too.
In the early 20th century, it risked being cut up for building materials. The campaign to save it contributed to Switzerland’s nature-conservation movement. An educational trail introduces Monthey’s glacial erratics.
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