Sark

Sark runs on hooves, pedals and boots: cars never arrived, the lanes belong to bicycles and horse-drawn carriages, and the island's drama concentrates at La Coupee - the knife-edge causeway to Little Sark, with a drop of about a hundred metres to the sea on each side and railings that concentrate minds - while below, Venus Pool and the silver beaches reward scramblers at low tide. Feudal quirk shaped its history (Europe's last feudal constitution ran here until 2008), gardens like La Seigneurie's walled ensemble keep horticultural honours, and darkness earned modern fame: Sark became the world's first designated Dark Sky Island, its nights a planetarium the absence of streetlights funds.

History

In ancient times Sark was almost certainly home to the Unelli, the Gallic tribe of the Cotentin, conquered by Julius Caesar around 56 BC, and in 933 it became part of the Duchy of Normandy; in the thirteenth century the pirate Eustace the Monk used it as a base. Monastic communities lived here in the Middle Ages, but by the 16th century the island was empty and a refuge for pirates, until in 1565 Elizabeth I granted it to Helier de Carteret of St Ouen in Jersey as a fief on condition that he kept it free of pirates with at least forty men; Sark remained a royal fiefdom until its new constitution took effect in 2008 (Wikipedia, Sark).

Highlights

• La Coupee - the vertiginous causeway to Little Sark.
• The carriage lanes - hooves and pedals as the island's traffic.
• La Seigneurie gardens - the walled horticultural pride.
• The dark skies - the first Dark Sky Island's night show.

When to go

April to September for ferries and cycling weather; new-moon overnights serve the stargazing that daylight visitors miss entirely. Spring cliffs run with bluebells and campion.

Things to know

The harbour hill greets arrivals steeply (the 'toast rack' tractor-bus helps); bikes suit most, but the lanes roll more than maps admit. Overnight beds are few - the stars book out with them.

Nearby

Herm across the water, and Guernsey's east-coast views of the whole bailiwick.

Key facts