Les Minquiers

Les Minquiers, known locally as the Minkies, is a reef around eighteen kilometres south of Jersey that at the lowest tides exposes an area larger than Jersey itself, though almost all of it is rock and sand rather than land. A few huts stand on Maîtresse Île, the largest islet, and the southernmost of them is generally described as the southernmost building in the British Isles. Ownership of the reef was settled by the International Court of Justice in 1953.

Background

When the tide is high, just a handful of the main heads remain dry. Maîtresse, the largest, is approximately 50 metres long and 20 metres wide, with around ten stone cottages in mixed states of repair, and nobody lives on the islands year round. In summer they draw fishermen, collectors of vraic, the seaweed used as fertiliser, as well as yachtsmen, kayakers and radio amateurs. Only five sales of the islands' twenty buildings have been recorded in 50 years, one of them in August 2018. The reef was listed as a Ramsar site on 2 February 2005. Victor Hugo describes the Minquiers at length in Toilers of the Sea (1866).

Source: Wikipedia, "Minquiers"

The landscape

• The exposed reef - an area larger than Jersey uncovered at the lowest tides.
• Maîtresse Île - the largest islet, with its group of huts.
• The southernmost building - the hut usually described as the furthest south in the British Isles.
• The clear shallows - water over sand between the rocks.

When to go

May to September is the boat season. Trips run to the tide and the biggest exposures come at spring low water. Weather cancels crossings often.

Before you go

Trips depend entirely on tide and weather and are cancelled frequently. Navigation among the rocks is genuinely hazardous. There are no facilities at all.

Nearby

St Helier is north, and the French coast is east.

Key facts