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.

Harbour

Ship Inn

Harbour Cafe

Belvoir Bay

There are lots of signposts on Herm, but most of the cafes on the island are closed for most of the year.

Fisherman's Beach on the west coast

Not every field is accessible!

Cemetery

Looking south down the west coast

Pierre aux Rats Obelisk

Shell Beach Café

Belvoir Beach

St Tugual's Chapel

The Manor

White House Hotel

Zen garden

Shell Beach

Alderney Point

This is the north east corner of the island

Stone Bench

There are lots of benches like this around the island.  They should be very durable, if not very comfortable!

I think this is the remains of one of the Neolithic burial sites on The Common near Shell Beach

Restored crane outside the White House Hotel

This was previously in use at the harbour

Former prison

Waiting for the ferry back to Guernsey at Rosaire Steps

Shell Beach

Herm Coast Path

 

Herm

Island 91 - Guernsey - Channel Islands

Guernsey is only 6 miles by 4 but it manages to pack in a variety of terrains, over 62,000 people and lots of visitor attractions into that small space.  Guernsey is a Crown Dependency with its own legislative assembly.

Guernsey has been occupied for at least 7,000 years.  There are Neolithic burial chambers on the island.  The largest is La Varde Dolmen on L'Ancresse Common.   There are also earthworks from the Iron Age and artefacts from the Neolithic, Iron Age and Roman periods have been found on Guernsey.  In the 6th century St Sampson founded a church but in the 9th century Guernsey was attacked by the Vikings.  In 933 the island was annexed by William Longsword and it became part of the Duchy of Normandy.  After the Norman Conquest in 1066 it became part of the English Crown.  In 1204 King John lost Normandy but the Channel Islands remained loyal and were awarded self-governing status.  During the Napoleonic Wars forts and Martello towers were built e.g. Fort Grey and Fort Le Marchant.

Guernsey was in fact 2 islands from the Middle Ages, when the low lying area between Grande Harve and The Bridge at St Sampson was flooded by the sea, until 1806 when the 300 acres of the Braye du Valle was reclaimed from the sea on the orders of Sir John Doyle, who was worried the French would land there and it would be difficult to defend.   The drained area was turned into farmland and Vale Pond is now the only visual indication of its past.

I spent an enjoyable week on Guernsey in May 2009.  I stayed in a guesthouse in the main town, St Peter Port.  It was good value for money but the landlady was a bit bossy and kept trying to organise my holiday for me and she was a bit put out when I said I had already planned my itinerary meticulously before I arrived!
 

Unusually for me I left the car at home and travelled by train to Weymouth and then by a Condor Ferry to St Peter Port.  I did this mainly because it is exorbitantly expensive to take a car on the ferry.  However I was glad I didn’t bring it, as Guernsey’s roads are surprisingly crowded and many people were driving too fast for the mainly narrow roads.  The bus service was cheap, very comprehensive and punctual.  I picked up a map at the Tourist Information Centre as soon as I arrived, which had all the bus routes marked on it, and a timetable and away I went.  I travelled on more buses in a week than I have done in the last decade.  Nowhere on the island is more than about half a mile from a bus route.  The map turned out to be essential, as it turned out that many of the bus drivers were not local but had recently come over from England for the summer season and didn’t know where many of the places I wanted to visit were.  One driver went completely the wrong way until one of the locals pointed this out to him. 

I walked 7-10 miles every day and saw parts of the island that most visitors probably don’t visit e.g. St Saviour’s Reservoir and the Talbot and Fauxquests Valleys, which were covered in bluebells.  I walked along lots of ruettes (green lanes), ruette tranquilles (quiet lanes) and water lanes – paths with streams running alongside. 

The coast path from St Peter Port round the south of the island to Pleinmont is stunningly beautiful and particularly so in May when most of the wild flowers are in bloom.  Like most coast paths there is a fair amount of up, down, up, down but the views make the effort worthwhile.  The coast path round the rest of the island is mainly along busy roads, so is not so good for walkers.  There are lots of great sandy beaches and virtually every cove and beach has a café.  

I had a 1970s map of Guernsey, which I took with me.  At that time much of the island was covered in glasshouses producing tomatoes and flowers.  However since then most of these have been demolished or are unused and in a dilapidated state of disrepair.  I was surprised that on such a small and densely populated island that they aren’t using every square inch to grow food.  I was disappointed to see very few Guernsey cattle. 

It is difficult on Guernsey to avoid reminders of the island’s occupation by the Germans in the Second World War.  After I had booked my holiday I realised that I would be there for Liberation Day on 9^th May.  It is partly a day for remembrance but is mainly an excuse for an all day party, which isn’t my idea of fun, so I went to Sark for the day to avoid it.  I didn’t visit the Occupation Museum, La Vallette Underground Military Museum, Pleinmont Observation Tower, the German Naval Signals HQ or the Underground Military Hospital, as there are only so many museums you would want to visit in a week and only so much you want to know about the Second World War on the island. 

However I did visit most of the tourist attractions on the island e.g.

• Sausmarez Manor and sub-tropical gardens

• Little Chapel – this was built by Brother Déodat, who started work in March 1914. His plan was to create a miniature version of the famous grotto and basilica at Lourdes in France. It is decorated with seashells, pebbles and colourful pieces of broken china.  It is reputed to be the world’s smallest chapel

• Fort Grey – built in 1804 and now a shipwreck museum

• Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery

• Candie Gardens in St Peter Port

• Vale Castle - this was originally an Iron Age fort, then a medieval castle, which was added to in the 18th Century and by the Germans in World War 2.

• Guernsey Telephone Museum – this was my favourite, as I love obscure museums.  I was very disappointed that the Tomato Museum has closed down but this one made up for it.  The guides were friendly and knowledgeable and there several hands-on exhibits.

• Clarence Battery - this was built in 1780 as part of Fort George, the island's main fort during the French Revolution.

• Victoria Tower - built to commemorate Queen Victoria's visit to Guernsey in 1846.

• Saumarez Park and Folk Museum - the largest park on the island

 

Victor Hugo lived at Hauteville House in St Peter Port from 1855 until 1870 and he wrote Les Miserables during this time.  His house and garden are open to the public.  There is a statue of Victor Hugo in the Candie Gardens in St Peter Port.

Hauteville House where Victor Hugo lived

Statue of Victor Hugo in Candie Gardens

L'Espace Creatif: Statue of Victor Hugo

This statue and seat on North Esplanade in St Peter Port, was made by Mark Cook in association with Guernsey Arts.  It was installed in 2021.

St Peter Port from Castle Cornet

Victoria Tower, St Peter Port

Grandes Rocques Battery

Guernsey cows

 L'Erée Battery

Fort Saumarez, L'Erée

A Martello tower was erected at L'Erée in 1804.  It was named after Royal Navy captain, Sir James Saumarez, who commanded the British naval forces in the Channel Islands at that point. During the Second World War the Germans built and observation tower on top of the Martello tower.

Statue and model of the life of Edler Schweizer Ritter Othon, St Peter Port

Guernsey Post Box in St Peter Port

Liberation Monument, St Peter Port

Sculpture at Guernsey Airport

Fort at L'Ancresse Common

Fort Pembroke

L'Ancresse Bay

Stained glass window in the Town Church, St Peter Port

Castle Cornet from the Clarence Battery

Fort at Fermain Bay

Fermain Bay

Moulin Huet



 

La Prevote
the coast path on the south of the island is stunning.

 

L'Ancresse

 - the remains of World War Two watchtowers are numerous around the coast of Guernsey

 

Millennium Stone, L'Ancresse

 La Gran'mere du Chimquiere, St Martins Church
 - she is around 4,000 years old and may have been a fertility symbol

Jersey lily

Island 90 - Hayling, Hampshire

Hayling Island is located 2 miles south of the town of Havant.  It is joined to the mainland by Langstone Bridge.  The island is 3.5 miles long by 4.5 miles wide at the south end but at its narrowest point it is only half a mile wide.  I was surprised to find farmland on the island, as I was expecting it to be more built up.  

 Langstone Bridge and salt marsh in the mist from the road to the east near the Langstone Hotel

Hayling has been occupied since the Stone Age.  The Romans built a temple there and it was farmed by the Anglo-Saxons.  After 1066 William the Conqueror granted South Hayling Manor, which covered most of the island, to the French Benedictine Abbey of Jumieges.   They owned it until 1415.  The production of salt from seawater is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. Hundreds of acres of land were lost to the sea in a great flood in the first half of the 14^th century.  In 1579 South Hayling Manor became the property of the Dukes of Norfok.  They owned it until 1825 when they sold it to a William Padwick.

In 1824 a toll bridge opened.  There were plans to develop Hayling Island into a resort but only the Grand Crescent and Royal Hotel were built at this stage.  In 1865 a railway branch line from Havant was built to Langstone and this was extended in 1867 to South Hayling.  

Before the construction of the toll bridge, Hayling was only accessible by boat or at low tide from Langstone via a footpath known as the Wadeway.  Some of the wooden posts, which marked the route can still be seen at low tide.

St Peter's Church at Northney

Princess Catherine Yurievskaya/Yourievsky is buried in St Peter's churchyard.  She was the daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia.  She was born in St Petersburg in 1878 but fled to France with her mother after her father was assassinated in 1881.  She lived on Hayling Island from 1932 until her death in 1959.

There is a large ancient yew tree in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, which is 1,000-2,000 years old and has a girth of 9 metres.


Norfolk Crescent, South Hayling 

This should be Hayling's best architectural feature but all the houses are divided into flats or bedsits and it all looks very dilapidated and sorry for itself, which is a great shame.



Former Royal Hotel at South Hayling

It has been restored to its former glory and is now luxury apartments. 

From the 1930s the island was developed as a resort.  Houses, a cinema, funfair and holiday camp were built.  

 Hayling Seaside Railway and Funfair at South Hayling
The light railway runs along the seafront for about a mile between Beachlands and Eastoke

Beach huts at South Hayling
There are 3 miles of shingle beach along the south coast of the island

After the Second World War more houses and schools were built.  The wooden bridge was replaced in 1965 by the current concrete one and the railway line closed in 1963, as the cost of replacing the wooden railway bridge was prohibitively high.  The line is now the Hayling Billy Trail for walkers and cyclists and the former goods shed is a theatre.

 Old Station Theatre

During the Second World War Sinah Common was used as a decoy or Starfish (the name came from the original term Special Fire) site to lure bombers away from Portsmouth.  In 1943 some of the Mulberry Harbours used for the D-Day Landings were built around the island.

 Ammunition Store at Sinah Common

 Anti-aircraft gun implacement at Sinah Common

Houseboats at Sinah Common looking east

 Golf Club on the far side of Sinah Lake

The end of the old railway line and the current Langstone Bridge


Hayling Lifeboat Station at Sandy Point

Sandy Point is a nature reserve and SSSI in the south east corner of the island.   It is an area of rare maritime heathland, grassland and sand dunes.  It is an important site for migrating birds and the Dartford warbler breeds there.  It was formerly part of the grounds of Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital, which opened on Hayling Island in 1919 and which treated TB patients and later children with mental health problems.  The hospital was demolished in 1988 and the site was taken over by Hampshire County Council.

Windsurfing was invented on Hayling Island in 1958 by Peter Chilvers.