Unlock the Island with Jersey Heritage audio tours that if the French fleet was to leave 1765 with a stone vaulted roof, to St Malo, the news could be flashed replace the original structure (which from lookout ships to Mont Orgueil (via was blown up). It is the oldest defensive Grosnez), to Sark and then Guernsey, fortification in St Ouen’s Bay and, as where the British fleet was stationed. with others, is painted white as a Tests showed that the news could navigation marker. arrive in Guernsey within 15 minutes of the French fleet’s departure! La Rocco Tower F 04 Standing half a mile offshore at St Ouen’s Bay F 02, 03, 04 and 05 the southern end of St Ouen’s Bay In 1779, the Prince of Nassau attempted is La Rocco Tower, the largest of to land with his troops in St Ouen’s Conway’s towers and the last to be Jersey’s spiritual Jersey’s maritime bay but found the Lieutenant built. Like the tower at Archirondel landscape Governor and the Militia waiting for it was built on a tidal islet and has a landscape Immerse Download the FREE audio tour Immerse Download the FREE audio tour him and was easily beaten back. surrounding battery, which helps yourself in from www.jerseyheritage.org yourself in from www.jerseyheritage.org the history the history However, the attack highlighted the give it a distinctive silhouette. and stories and stories need for more fortifications in the area of Jersey of Jersey and a chain of five towers was built in Portelet H 06 the bay in the 1780s as part of General The tower on the rock in the middle Supported by Supported by Henry Seymour Conway’s plan to of the bay is commonly known as Tourism Development Fund Tourism Development Fund fortify the entire coastline of Jersey. ‘Janvrin’s Tomb’. It takes its name from Philippe Janvrin, a sea captain returning Three of the towers were destroyed to Jersey in 1721 from France. He was by coastal erosion and these were not allowed to dock because of fears Jersey’s Spiritual Landscape replaced in the 1830s by Kempt Tower that he and his ship’s company might and Lewis Tower. Although all of bring in the plague. While anchored Jersey’s spiritual past told by the spirit of the Dean of Jersey’s towers are commonly offshore in Belcroute Bay he fell sick Jersey. Audio tour and map Jersey’s military referred to as ‘Martello’ towers, these and died, but the worried authorities later towers are among the few true wouldn’t allow his body to be brought Martello towers in the Island. They ashore. Instead, he was buried on the Jersey’s Maritime Landscape are squatter in design than the rocky islet known as Ile au Guerdain, in Listen to fishy tales and delve into Jersey’s maritime landscape 18th century round towers, with Portelet Bay, within sight of his Jersey past. Audio tour and map thicker walls to support the battery birthplace and home. Immerse Download the FREE audio tour placed on the top of them. yourself in from www.jerseyheritage.org St Aubin’s Fort J 05 Elizabeth Castle La Caumine à Mary Best G 03 The wide sweeping bay of St Aubin, the history An entertaining tale about the castle and its inhabitants As you travel further south along the bay with its proximity to the island’s main and stories you will come to a small guardhouse centres of habitation and commerce, Audio tour only called La Caumine à Mary Best, which was recognised early on as a likely of Jersey is also known locally as ‘the white landing spot for an invasion. From house’. A guardhouse was first the 16th century onwards, the bay Mont Orgueil Castle recorded on this site in 1665 when was protected at either end by gun Jersey’s iconic castle brought to life with tales of kings, the parishes of St Peter and St Ouen positions built on two islets. Over the knights and legends. Audio tour only shared responsibility for the defence years these were developed to become of the bay. The building was rebuilt in Elizabeth Castle and St Aubin’s Fort. Supported by Download for FREE at www.jerseyheritage.org Tourism Development Fund Over the centuries, the wars between the French and the Icho Tower N 06 English have played a major part in Jersey’s history and, ever This is a squat round tower that stands a mile offshore from Le Hocq. Icho Tower since 1204, when the Island con7rmed its allegiance to the is one of three Martello Towers built in English crown, Jersey has been subject to numerous invasions Jersey during the Napoleonic Wars on and attacks. This guide and accompanying audio tour trace the orders of General Sir George Don. the development of Jersey’s historic forti7cations. Seymour Tower P 06 Built in 1782 in direct response to Elizabeth Castle K 06 illness. Unfortunately, almost as soon the French invasion the previous year, Fortification began in the mid-16th as it was completed, the threat posed it has a gun battery at its base and, century with the building of gun by the French had already begun to unlike General Conway’s other towers, positions on small islets at opposite recede, following Napoleon’s defeat which were round in design, Seymour ends of St Aubin’s Bay. The gun at Waterloo. Tower is square because of the shape position at the western end of the bay, of the islet on which it stands. which was to become St Aubin’s Fort, Le Hocq N 06 had been positioned on this site when the island was raided by the actually predates Elizabeth Castle as, This is one of a series of round towers Mont Orgueil Castle P 04 since the late 16th century and a Castilian nobleman turned corsair, up until the late 1700s, St Aubin’s that were built along the coast to Towering above the skyline is Mont guardhouse was built along side it Don Pero Nino. Harbour was still the main port. defend the Island. The building Orgueil Castle which is built on a rocky in 1646 during the English Civil War. programme was ordered by General outcrop overlooking the sweep of the A century later a wall was built to A large cluster of granite buildings Work began on fortifying the bay’s Henry Seymour Conway, the then Royal Bay of Grouville. The site, which enclose the site and Fort Leicester set on the hillside above the bay is eastern approaches – for the defence Governor of Jersey, in response to is naturally protected on three sides by was created. The present layout of the Grève de Lecq Barracks. Construction of St Helier – in the 1550s, when a gun the threat of French invasion. This cliffs and the sea, has been used as a fort dates from the 1830s when new began in 1810 at the height of the fear platform was built on the highest part threat was confirmed when, in 1781, place of defence and refuge since the building work also took place at of Napoleonic invasion and was part of the islet now occupied by Elizabeth French troops (helped by a treacherous Neolithic period, around 3,000 years B.C. La Crête Fort and L’Etacquerel Fort. of General Sir George Don’s military Castle. However, work didn’t really Jerseyman) landed at La Rocque Fort Leicester had five heavy cannon, building programme. begin in earnest until the end of the and marched into town, where they Construction of the castle began in the probably 32-pounders, which were century when Queen Elizabeth I forced the Island’s commander to early 13th century, when King John lost positioned to prevent an enemy making Grosnez Castle F 01 despatched her engineer, Paul Ivy, surrender before being defeated by a control of Normandy and the Channel a landing in the bay. It needed about The gatehouse of Grosnez Castle is the to oversee its construction. Originally hastily-arranged defence force under Islands suddenly found themselves on 30 men and one officer to man the guns. only substantial part of this 14th century the command of Major Peirson in what the edge of a war zone, a position that known as the New Castle, it was castle that survives. Originally protected became known as the Battle of Jersey. was to last for another 600 years. Within named by Sir Walter Raleigh (who was L’Etacquerel Fort N 02 by a drawbridge and portcullis, the the Governor of Jersey from 1600 to sight of the French coast, and dominating L’Etacquerel derives its name from gatehouse was flanked by two strong 1603) in honour of Queen Elizabeth I. These round coastal towers were one of the island’s best landing beaches, the old Norse word ‘stakkr’, which towers. If you enter the castle you can simple in design and relatively quick Mont Orgueil Castle was Jersey’s original means a heap or a stack of rock. see the foundations of the towers to Fort Regent L 05 and cheap to build. Their advantage fortress and first line of defence against The fort is protected on the landward either side of the gatehouse. Fort Regent was named by the then over square towers was that they had a French invasion. side by a massive dry ditch. It housed Governor, General Sir George Don, in no weak angles, while the curved In 1806, a naval signal station was Fort Henry and Fort William P 04 and 05 four 32-pounder cannon, and the range honour of the Prince of Wales (later walls tend to deflect cannon balls.