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Beaches in Alderney
Alderney has a lot of white sandy bays and beaches with wonderful
clear water. Many of them are ideal for watersports, particularly windsurfing, surfing and snorkeling. The beaches are very
quiet and uncrowded with easy access by foot, bike or car.
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| Braye Bay |
Braye Bay – this is sheltered by
Alderney's famous Breakwater, which stretches three quarters of a mile out to sea and is a few minutes’ walk from town
and the best beach for sandcastle building.
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| Longis Bay |
Longis Bay is located on the south-east
coast. It has a wide, half-mile sandy beach facing south, protected from winds by a substantial tank wall built by the Germans
in WWII. There is a causeway here across to Fort/Castle Raz (not in use).
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| Corblets Beach |
Corblets Beach is a good choice for families
with children of all ages is popular and is good for swimmers. It's also the best beach for surfing. At high tide the rocks
on the left cut off this bay from adjoining Arch Bay.
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| Arch Bay with Fort Quesnard in the background |
Arch Bay, adjacent to Corblets
Beach, is a small sheltered beach favoured by families with young children. Saye Bay (pronounced Soy) - a marvelous family beach and adjacent to
the campsite. It is shaped like a shallow bowl giving way to a gentle slope. Sand dunes separate the beach from Saye campsite. Platte Saline is for nature lovers and fishermen
but, because of the severe undertow, swimming is not permitted at Platte Saline.
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| Fort Clonque and its Bay |
Clonque Bay is ideal for
rock pooling, nature lovers and the firm-footed. Clonque has a stoney and gravelly upper beach merging with a large rocky
area seaward stretching towards the Swinge. The area of course is dominated by Fort Clonque.
Geography &
Rock formation of Alderney
Victor Hugo
wrote in his romance “The Toilers of the Sea” that “the Channel Islands are portions of France which have
fallen into the sea and been picked up by England.” These words are more relevant to the Geology
rather than their history as in 1066 it was England that was picked up by Normandy and the Channel Islands formed a part of
it.
The rock formation of Alderney belongs to the great Amorican Province of northwest France rather than that
of Southwest province of England.
The west of Alderney is mainly composed of an ancient green/grey igneous rock which is called granodiorite
which is about 2,220 millions old. Within these rocks dark patches can be seen which are called xenoliths (“foreign
rocks”). These predate the granodiorite and are the oldest rocks on the Island.
To the east of Telegraph Bay the rock is granitic and probably of the same sort of age. Against the Western Granodiorite is a younger igneous
formation known as the Central Diorite Complex. This rock group is mostly diorite but is includes Bibette
Head granite and small masses of gabbro and picrite. Gabbro occurs on the west slopes of Fort Albert and
Mount hale.At
Roselle point and some other places round the coast a rather unusual rock called orbicular diorite is exposed.
The rocks described so far have
come from beneath the earth’s crust and were once molten and cooled there. However, Alderney Sandstone
is a sedimentary stone and was deposited in shallow waters in fast flowing streams. This sandstone can
be seen from Corblets Bay around the east and south-east coasts to L’Etac de la Quoire.
Burhou, Ortac and the Casquets and the Noires Putes are also composed of sandstone.Most of Alderney is covered by sands and gravels from the
Great Ice Age and have been deposited over the past 100,000 years. Sea levels have changed greatly due
to the waxing and waning of great ice sheets to the north.
Alderney has high cliffs on its southern coastline. On the eastern part older hard rocks are
overlaid with sandstone. The main central plateau area is about 80m high, having most of the agricultural land and the
airport and then slopes down steeply to the north and east.
History of Alderney
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| Victoria Street |
Until the 18th century most of the population of Alderney lived in the town
area of St Anne and not near Braye Harbour which was built around this time. There was a working water mill at Platte Saline-
(still available to view today) and some other buildings including defences built outside St Anne at this time.
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| High Street |
The harbour is protected by a massively long breakwater,
built originally to protect the British Fleet in the 19th century.
The Admiralty considered
Alderney to be of prime importance as a lookout for warships, which is why a major harbour was built at Braye. From this vantage
point a watch could be kept on the south side of the Channel towards Cherbourg and the new harbour at Portland kept watch
from the North.
The Western arm of the breakwater took up to 25 years to build whilst the chain of 18 separate
forts and batteries to defend Alderney and the harbour took only 10 years. One of the largest Napoleonic Forts in Alderney
is at Fort Clonque. The view you get of this from the top of the hill is amazing.
German
Occupation On
22nd June 1940 the islanders of Alderney assembled at the Butes to decide whether they wanted to leave the island.
They voted unanimously that they would and the next day the bells of St Anne’s Church rang to make everyone aware
that the ships were arriving at Alderney to take them to Weymouth on the south coast of England. Some seafaring
men were left on the island to perform final duties and 19 other islanders who refused to leave. 12 were
persuaded to go to Guernsey and 7 remained on Alderney. About 500 cattle, 23 horses and about 30 pigs were
also evacuated to Guernsey.
On July 2nd 1940 the Germans landed at Alderney airport, followed by others from Cherbourg by sea.
In 1941 it was decided that Alderney would be the granary of Guernsey and land at Grand Blaye and Little Blaye would
be used to cultivate barley, oats and wheat. Some of the evacuated herd returned to Alderney from
Guernsey and workers lived at the Grand Hotel.
On 20th October 1941 Hitler ordered more fortification
of the Channel Islands to prevent the British from retaking them. There were several German camps on Alderney;
Borkum (off Longis Road), Helgoland (inland from Platte Saline), Nordeney (near Saye Bay) and Lager Sylt (south west of the
airport).
In 1942 the Guernsey civilians which were initially brought over to work on the island
for the Germans but were replaced by unfortunate workers for the Organisation Todt. There were thousands
of them and they were employed as slaves to build German fortifications. They were treated extremely
badly, starved and ill clad and many of them died on the island. The Vichy Frenchmen fared better than
the Russians and Jews and the maximum number of recorded slaves was said to be more than 7,000. The Russian
workers who died there were buried in a special enclosure on Longis Common.
It has been recorded
that 38,000 mines were buried around the coast and a very strong anti-invasion wall built which still in exists today
along Longis Bay. Above
Mannez Lighthouse on the hill is a massive German tower which was once called The Odean also built by slaves.
On 16th May 1945 a week after the
Germans surrended in Guernsey, a British force went to Alderney to accept their surrender. However, the
island’s population was no longer there, so it could hardly be called a “liberation.” The
condition of the island was dreadful and the Home Office set up a Commission of Enquiry to rehabilitate the islanders on their
return.
Many mines and lethal weapons had to be removed and land had to be made fit for planting. Islanders returned
in stages. Firstly the States members and business people returned, followed by people who would be
prepared to work on the land. The Ministry of Works built several houses where this labour force lived.
In October 1945 other islanders arrived and stayed at the Grand, Belle Vue and Victoria Hotels. The
airport was out of commission and therefore arrival back to the island was by sea and on arriving a placard was displayed
saying “Welcome Home" at Braye jetty. This was made under the orders of the Lieutenant-Governor
and by the German prisoners-of-war. A church service was then held, but the church was in a very sad
condition and there were only 2 bells remaining which were hung from frames in the churchyard. The
others had been sent to Cherbourg in France by the Germans and once they were found there, they were returned to
Alderney.
By February 1946 the airport was opened and "Rapide" aircraft were operating a service to
and from the island.
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| Braye Habour breakwater |
The best way of seeing the island is probably by
walking or cycling, as it is mostly pretty flat. You will see many German fortifications all of them quite different from
the others and often built in materials to camouflage them so that they blended into their surroundings.
There are 3 large coastal artillery batteries and Battery Annes
is near the airport. There are still gun pits, underground magazines and ammunition lifting machinery. Also near the airport
is Lager Sylt, the only German SS Concentration Camp on British soil. It is today a quiet and sad place and the only remains
is the entrance gateway and a few concrete bases of the buildings. The Hammond Memorial was given by the Hammond family who
is well known on Alderney. This is for all the foreign workers who died in work camps and the concentration camps on Alderney.
The waters around Alderney are dangerous
with rocky outcrops and the tides can be high at times. Over the centuries many ships have been shipwrecked, some still yet
to be found. There is one particular shipwreck which occurred towards the end of the 16th century. It is believed
to be the only known wreck of an English warship of the Elizabethan Age and probably one of the ships which fought against
the Spanish Armada, and is presently being explored by divers.
Braye Harbour
www.lavenderview-alderney.co.uk
www.bedandbreakfasts.co.uk
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