Visit Alderney - Alderney History
Alderney, third largest of the Channel Islands, is roughly 3 miles long by 1½ at its widest, about 2,000 acres in extent and is situated in the mouth of the Channel, 9 miles due West of Cap de la Hague in Normandy. It has high cliffs along its southern coastline, the eastern part of which, the older harder rocks are overlaid with sandstone, (the only Channel Island to contain this rock), with the main plateau area, about 80m high, having most of the agricultural land and sloping steeply down to the north and east.
Until the mid 18th century, when the first harbour at Braye was built, in historic times almost the entire population lived in the town area, developed from the original 'nucleated village' settlement in a hollow around the Bourgage and the old church. There were only the water mill at Platte Saline and few buildings, except for defensive positions, outside this area. The farm buildings were mostly attached to the houses, many of which were built back into the slope of the ground behind them.
Elizabethan Wreck
The Island of Alderney is renowned for its severe tides and its rugged and dangerous coastline. Over the centuries it has proved the undoing of dozens of ships, many well known, some obscure and some whose wrecks still await discovery. Each shipwreck represents a moment frozen in time, but one in particular has provoked world-wide interest - a vessel which came to grief towards the end of the sixteenth century. If preliminary findings are correct, this is the only known wreck of an English warship of the Elizabethan Age, perhaps even one of the ships which fought against the Spanish Armada.
Elizabethan Wreck
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