Lihou Island

Lihou lies off Guernsey's western tip and is reached on foot across a cobbled causeway that only clears at low tide, which means the island is accessible for a few hours at a time on published dates. The ruins of a Benedictine priory of the twelfth century stand on it, along with a house used for residential groups, and the surrounding reefs and pools are a Ramsar site rich in marine life.

Background

No Channel Island lies further west than Lihou, which covers 36 acres and is joined to L'Erée headland by a stone causeway 400 metres long. A ridge 20 metres high runs approximately north to south. Archaeological digs in the 1990s recovered Mesolithic objects, the earliest evidence of people here. Estimates for the founding of the priory range from 1114 to 1156, and the last recorded prior served around 1560. Locals once gathered seaweed on the island for fertiliser. On 1 March 2006 Lihou and the headland became part of Guernsey's first Ramsar wetland site, about 427 hectares of land and sea, and the nearby islets of Lissroy and Lihoumel are breeding grounds for Eurasian oystercatchers and common ringed plovers.

Source: Wikipedia, "Lihou"

What's there

• The tidal causeway - a cobbled crossing open only for a few hours at low water.
• The priory ruins - the twelfth-century Benedictine remains.
• The rock pools - the Ramsar reef and pool system around the island.
• The isolation - an island cut off for most of every day.

When to go

Causeway opening times are published and vary through the month; check before going. April to September is the season for the pools and birds. Winter storms close the crossing.

Things to know

Getting cut off by the tide is a real risk and people are caught out every year. There are no facilities on the island. The causeway is uneven and slippery.

Nearby

L'Eree is on the mainland, and Fort Grey is south.

Key facts