A lifetime of Islands: Island 92 - Herm, Channel Islands

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

Island 92 - Herm, Channel Islands

Herm is 1.5 miles long by half a mile wide. It can be accessed by regular ferries run by Travel Trident from St Peter Port.

Herm has some fabulous beaches and a 4 mile long coast path runs round the whole island, which is flat in the north and bit more hilly in the south. The island is car-free, but there are a few quad bikes and tractors, which are used for farming and transporting luggage, food etc.

I visited for a morning in May 2009. It was raining when I left St Peter Port, so there weren't many people on the first ferry of the day, which meant that I had most of the island to myself for the first few hours. My 2nd visit was in early October 2024.

Neolithic tombs and artefacts have been found on the island, which was later visited by Roman traders. In the 6th century it was a place of meditation for monks from Jersey and Sark. By the 10th century it was ruled by the Dukes of Normandy and later came under the control of the Benedictine Abbey of Mont St Michel. In the 12th century St Tugual's Chapel was built on the site of an earlier chapel. This has now been incorporated into the main house on the island. In 1204 Herm came under the control of the English Crown.

From the 16th century until 1737 the island was a sporting playground for the governors of Guernsey, who hunted game birds and rabbits.

Granite quarrying was carried out on the island in the 19th century. From 1889-1949 the island had a succession of tenants including Prince Blücher von Wahlstatt (1889-1914, he introduced a colony of red necked wallabies to the island); the novelist Compton Mackenzie (1920-23) and Sir Percival Perry, the Chairman of Ford Motor Company (1923-39). The island was occupied by the Germans from 1940-45.

After the Second World War the States of Guernsey acquired Herm from the British crown They leased it to Major Peter Wood in 1949. At this time the island was in a derelict, rundown and overgrown state. In 1980 Peter Wood's daughter Pennie Heyworth took over the lease of Herm with her husband Adrian. They sold the 40 year lease to Julia and John Singer. It was funded by the Starboard Settlement Trust. A 21 year extension to the lease was agreed in 2017, which will run until 2069.

There is a hotel on the island, several self-catering cottages and a campsite. There are 2 pubs (the Ship Inn and the Mermaid Tavern). There are also 2 beach cafés at Shell and Belvoir beaches, but neither were open when we visited in October 2024.

For a small island Herm has a wide range of habitats - grassland, woodland, sandy beaches, rock pools and granite cliffs.