We've been on holiday in Jersey with some of Joyce's Weekly Walks group for a week walking (most of) the Jersey Tidal Trail around the perimeter of the island and visiting a few of the sights.
Today Dawn and I walked some of
Section 6 (St Martin) of the trail (which the dedicated walkers did all of yesterday). Then, on our way back, we stopped off at
Samares Manor and its botanic gardens.
This was our route.
Here are a few of my photos.
We took a bus to St. Catherine's bay. It was raining all the way there and raining still when we got there.
The view looking north.
We walked along the breakwater. It was rather windy.
By the time we got to the end, though, the rain started to ease off.
We were heading this way towards Gorey, where we had started on Sunday.
Tempting though it was to go into the cafe, we set off.
The path alongside the rocky shore was pleasant and there were plenty of wild flowers.
We came to St. Catherine's Lifboat slip and
white tower.
Our next tower would be
Archirondel Tower. Jersey has a wide range of defensive fortifications dating from prehistoric times through to the 1940s. In 1772, it was advised in a survey that the Bay of Arch Hirondelle required defences as it was vulnerable to French forces, and a plan was proposed by General Conway in 1778 to build a series of 30 towers around the Island to deter French invasion. Archirondel, as it is known today, was the 22nd Tower to be built and is an evolution of the basic Conway design. Unusually, the Tower is predominantly built of rhyolite. This was due to Archirondel’s location, which is relatively significant distance for the nearest source of granite.
Archirondel Tower was built on an offshore rocky outcrop called La Roche Rondel, with construction work beginning on 17 November 1792, and was completed by 1794 at a cost of £4,000. A year later, once professional soldiers of the Artillery and Engineers were introduced into the garrison, it was decided to build a permanent masonry gun platform around the base of the Tower. This was a prototype later used for La Rocco Tower in St Ouen’s Bay. It was this element that kept Archirondel Tower as a significant defensive work long after the other Towers became redundant, and it remained effective until the 1860s.
We saw plenty of shore birds today. Here is an oystercatcher.
We stopped at the cafe by the tower and shared a bacon roll with our coffee and hot chocolate.
By now the weather had cleared up enough for us to see these rocky islands and the coast of Normandy beyond.
We passed it and descended into Gorey village.
There was a ceramic shop next door. Dawn was keen to get some fishes, but they were too pricey.
We didn't have long to wait by the habour for our 1A bus.
We got off a stop early, but
Samares Manor was less than 10 minute walk further on.
We enjoyed reading about the travels of Sir James Knott's widow and seeing her memorabilia.
There is an agricultural museum with lots of carriages and machinery.
The walled garden has a wonderful variety of apples and pears.
There is a viewing platform overlooking the house and gardens.
There is a wisteria maze.
My favourite bit was the Japanese Garden.
In the evening, as it was our last night in Jersey we all met at
Pizzeria Romana for a meal together.
Dawn was the only one to have a pudding (although others shared some of it). She couldn't resist the tiramisu.
Another great day out. Back to England tomorrow!
You can find more details of our 4.2 mile route on the Jersey Tidal Trail Route page or here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.
You can see more of my blog posts about our trip below
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