Fort Clonque

Fort Clonque sits on a rock off Alderney's west coast, one of the ring of forts built in the 1850s when Britain fortified the island, reached by a causeway that the sea covers at high tide so the place is genuinely cut off twice a day. The Landmark Trust restored it and lets it as a single property, so it is lived in rather than a ruin. Concrete added later sits among the Victorian granite.

History

Fort Clonque was built in 1853-1855 by the British government, worried by the growing French navy and the expansion of the nearby French port of Cherbourg. Captain William Jervois built it to protect the western side of Alderney, for 55 men and two officers with ten guns, mostly 68-pounders, none of which was ever fired in anger. It was decommissioned in 1929 and sold at auction a year later to the businessman Ralph Duplain for £27. Modern gun positions were added in the Second World War, and in 1953 scenes of the film Seagulls Over Sorrento were shot here. After falling out of use it was bought by the Landmark Trust in 1966, and it now sleeps up to thirteen people (Wikipedia, Fort Clonque).

What to look for

• The tidal causeway - the crossing that the sea covers twice a day.
• The Victorian granite - the 1850s fort walls on their rock.
• The later concrete - the mid-twentieth century additions among the older work.
• The isolation - a fort genuinely cut off at high water.

When to go

May to September is the season on Alderney. Tide tables govern access at any time of year. Winter storms make the causeway dangerous.

Practical notes

The fort is a private let and the interior cannot be visited unless you have booked it. The causeway is genuinely dangerous when the tide is making. There is no parking at the fort itself.

Nearby

St Anne is east, and Les Etacs is north.

Key facts