Herm

Twenty ferry minutes from St Peter Port, Herm compresses the archipelago's virtues into a car-free mile and a half: Shell Beach runs its famous white curve of shell-fragment sand into water that photographs Caribbean on the right day, Belvoir Bay tucks its smaller perfection under the cliffs, puffins raft off the southern heights in spring, and the island's single hotel, campsite and cluster of cottages keep hospitality at rowing-boat scale. Paths lap the island in an unhurried hour, tractors and wheelbarrows handle all haulage, and day-trippers' departure at teatime hands overnighters the entire idyll.

History

Herm was first visited by Mesolithic hunters between 10,000 and 8,000 BC, and Neolithic and Bronze Age settlers left chamber tombs, mostly on the Common at the northern end. In the 6th century the followers of Saint Tugual founded a chapel and the island became a centre of monastic life; in 709 a storm washed away the strip of land joining it to Jethou, in 933 it was annexed with the other Channel Islands to the Duchy of Normandy, and in 1204 it passed to the English Crown. An inn opened in 1810, and during the Industrial Revolution quarrymen working new granite quarries made it busier than at any time since prehistory; the novelist Compton Mackenzie took the tenancy in 1920 (Wikipedia, Herm).

What you'll find

• Shell Beach - the white shell-sand curve and its improbable water.
• Belvoir Bay - the pocket cove under the southern cliffs.
• The puffin rafts - spring seabirds off the heights.
• The coast path lap - the whole island in an hour's stroll.

When to go

April to September for ferries at full schedule and swimming optimism; May-June adds puffins. The overnight is the connoisseur's version - the island empties beautifully at the last boat.

Before you go

Fine weekends fill the beaches by late morning - early ferries win; the water's colour outperforms its temperature honestly. Facilities are deliberately few - part of the contract.

Nearby

Sark's cliffs across the water and St Peter Port's amphitheatre harbour.

Key facts