Vale Castle

Vale Castle stands on a hill above St Sampson's harbour, a walled enclosure whose curtain and gatehouse survive though the buildings inside are gone, raised in the medieval period on ground that was fortified long before and reworked in the eighteenth century and again in the twentieth. From the walls the north of the island, the harbour and Herm and Sark beyond are laid out. Excavation found Iron Age occupation under the medieval walls, so the hill has been held in one form or another for well over two thousand years.

History

Earthworks of 500-600 BC, a double ditch and bank, show an Iron Age hillfort here, the only one of its kind in Guernsey. Around 968 monks from Mont Saint-Michel founded an abbey of St Michael in the north of the island, then cut off from the rest by a tidal channel, and after pirates raided Guernsey in 1061 the monks and Sampson d'Anneville, who had driven the raiders out, were granted half the island between them; the castle of St Michael, as it was first called, was built as a refuge from pirates, though excavations in 1980 dated the late medieval works to about 1370-1400. French forces took it in 1338 and held it until 1340, and it was the scene of the last stand against Owain Lawgoch's raid of 1372. Granite curtain walls and a gatehouse were added in the 15th century and barracks during the American Revolutionary War; Russian soldiers quartered nearby in 1799, hundreds of whom died of disease, are buried here, and the reclaiming of the Braye du Valle in 1806-1808 joined the north to the rest of the island. The last changes were made in 1942-1944 by Organisation Todt workers for the German occupiers, who pulled down the barracks and built gun and mortar positions (Wikipedia, Vale Castle, Guernsey).

What you'll find

• The curtain walls - the surviving medieval enclosure and gatehouse.
• The layered fortification - ground fortified across many periods.
• The harbour view - St Sampson laid out directly below.
• The island panorama - Herm and Sark visible across the water.

When to go

Year round; the site is open ground. Summer evenings are best for the view. Winter winds on the hill are strong.

Before you go

Nothing survives inside the walls and interpretation is minimal. The climb up is short but steep. Concerts held in the enclosure close it at times.

Nearby

St Sampson is below, and Rousse Tower is west.

Key facts