Walking on Guernsey. Paddy Dillon

Getting around Guernsey

       Travel to Alderney, Sark and Herm

       Tourist information

       Emergencies

       Using this guide

       THE WALKS

       Walk 1 St Peter Port Town Trail

       Walk 2 St Peter Port and Fermain Bay

       Walk 3 Fermain and Jerbourg Point

       Walk 4 La Fosse and Icart Point

       Walk 5 Le Bourg and Pointe de La Moye

       Walk 6 La Prévôte and Torteval

       Walk 7 Portelet Harbour and Pleinmont

       Walk 8 Rocquaine Bay and Lihou Island

       Walk 9 Perelle Bay and St Saviour

       Walk 10 Vazon Bay and Cobo Bay

       Walk 11 Cobo Bay and Saumarez Park

       Walk 12 Portinfer and L’Islet

       Walk 13 L’Ancresse and Vale

       Walk 14 St Sampson and Belle Grève Bay

       Walk 15 Beau Sejour and Le Friquet

       Walk 16 St Martin and La Villette

       Walk 17 St Andrew and Castel

       Walk 18 King’s Mills and Fauxquets

       Walk 19 Rocquaine Bay and Quanteraine

       Walk 20 Guernsey Coastal Walk

       ALDERNEY

       Walk 21 Alderney – East

       Walk 22 Alderney – West

       SARK

       Walk 23 Sark – South

       Walk 24 Sark – North

       HERM

       Walk 25 Herm

       APPENDIX A The Channel Island Way

       APPENDIX B Route summary table

       APPENDIX C Contacts

      Attractively rugged rocks are seen while walking round the Hommet headland (Walk 10)

      INTRODUCTION

      ‘Morceaux de France tombés à la mer et ramassés par l’Angleterre.’ ‘Pieces of France fallen into the sea and picked up by England.’

      Victor Hugo

      Small and often very busy, but also beautiful and abounding in interest, the Channel Islands are an intriguing walking destination. The self-governing ‘bailiwicks’ of Guernsey and Jersey owe their allegiance to the Crown and seem outwardly British, but are in fact an ancient remnant of the Duchy of Normandy, with Norman–French place-names very much in evidence. For British visitors, it is like being at home and abroad at the same time. French visitors, however, find it a quintessentially British experience!

      Walkers will find magnificent cliff and coastal paths, golden sandy beaches, wooded valleys and quiet country lanes. Flowers will be noticed everywhere and there is a rich birdlife. There are castles, churches, ancient monuments and fortifications to visit, as well as a host of other attractions. There are efficient and frequent bus services, and easy onward links by air and sea between the islands. This guidebook describes 24 one-day walking routes, covering a total distance around 225km (140 miles), plus a long-distance coastal walk around the island of Guernsey, almost 65km (40 miles). There is also a note about the Channel Island Way, a long-distance island-hopping route embracing the entire archipelago, covering 178km (110 miles) (see Appendix A).

Location

      The Channel Islands lie south of Britain, but not everyone immediately appreciates how close they are to France. The islands fit snugly into a box bounded by lines of longitude 2°W and 3°W, and lines of latitude 49°N and 50°N. This puts them well and truly in the Golfe de St Malo off the Normandy coast of France, The French refer to them as Les Îles Anglo-Normandes, and that is the clue to their curious place in geography and history. They are the only remnants of the Duchy of Normandy to remain loyal to the Crown.

      Guernsey is the second largest of the Channel Islands after Jersey, with an area of only 63km2 (24½ square miles). The smaller neighbouring islands of Alderney, Sark and Herm together add less than 15km2 (6 square miles) of land area. No point on Guernsey is more than 3km (2 miles) from the sea, yet it can take weeks to explore the place thoroughly.

Geology

      In Britain virtually every major geological period is represented. Channel Islands geology is more closely related to structures in France. Rocks are either very ancient or relatively recent, with hundreds of millions of years missing from the middle of the geological timescale. Fossils are virtually absent and the amount of sedimentary rock is quite limited. Most of the area is made up of ancient sediments and igneous rocks which have been heated, warped, crushed, deformed, melted and metamorphosed. Further intrusions of igneous rocks cause further confusion for the beginner, but there is a basic succession that can be presented in a simplified form.

      The most ancient bedrocks in the Channel Islands are metamorphic and metasedimentary rocks known as ‘Pentevrian’ – a term used in neighbouring France. Ancient gneisses, often containing xenoliths of other long-lost strata, feature in this early series. Dating rocks of this type is possible only by examining radio-isotopes in their mineral structure, which suggest dates of formation ranging from 2500 to 1000 million years ago. The oldest rocks occur in southern Guernsey, western Alderney and possibly on Sark.

      Rugged cliff scenery is enjoyed from the path all the way round Icart Point (Walk 4)

      The ‘Brioverian’ sedimentary series dates from 900 to 700 million years ago. This is represented by a broad band of mudstones, siltstones and conglomerates across Jersey. In Guernsey, however, only a small area in the west contains these rocks, albeit in an altered state. One of the problems of dealing with these sediments is that even while they were being formed, they were being deformed by earthquakes, heat and pressure. Fossil remains are few, and in fact are represented only by a few worm burrows.

      Following on from the formation of the Brioverian sediments, a series of igneous intrusions were squeezed into the bedrock around 650 to 500 million years ago. Interestingly, both granites and gabbros were intruded, along with intermediate