La Cotte de St Brelade

La Cotte de St Brelade is a granite ravine on the southwestern coast that Neanderthals used across roughly two hundred and fifty thousand years, and excavation there found stone tools in enormous numbers along with two heaps of mammoth and woolly rhinoceros bones, stacked in a way that has been read as evidence of hunting drives over the cliff. Erosion threatens the deposits and the site is closed and monitored rather than open.

What you actually see

• The ravine - the granite cleft in the cliff the site occupies.
• The occupation span - use running across roughly a quarter of a million years.
• The bone heaps - the stacked mammoth and rhinoceros remains found in excavation.
• The coastal setting - the site above what was dry plain during glacial periods.

When to go

Not applicable; the site is closed. It can be seen from the coast path above and from the sea. Material from it is displayed at the Jersey Museum.

Honest expectations

The site is closed to the public and cannot be entered. What can be seen from outside is a cleft in a cliff. The finds are in the Jersey Museum, which is where to go for the substance.

Nearby

Beauport Beach is southeast, and St Brelade's Bay is east.