Guernsey Parishes

Guernsey is made up of 10 parishes.

St. Andrew

St Andrew located in the centre of Guernsey and as such is the only parish on the island to be landlocked.

Features include:

• St Andrew's Church
• St Andrew's School
• The German Underground Hospital
• The Little Chapel at Les Vauxbelets
• Grammar School

Castel

Castel is the largest (in area) of the 10 parishes in the island of Guernsey, Castel is also, along with the Vale parish, roughly equal second in population after St Peter Port.

Features include:

• Castel hosts the North Show and Battle of Flowers in August each year
• The parish church of St Marie de Castel is notable for its preserved medieval fresco and for the presence of a pre-Christian neolithic menhir in the churchyard, thought to be carved to represent a female fertility symbol.

Forest

Forest is the highest parish on the island, with altitudes of up to about 100 metres. The South coast is mostly made up of cliffs. Beaches in Forest include Portlet (Innaccessable from land; you have to swim to it from Petit Bôt or go by boat) and Part of Petit Bôt.

Features include:

• Stunning cliff walks along the south coast
• Guernsey Airport
• Guernsey's highest point

St. Martin

St. Martin is located in the southeast. The parish borders Forest on the southwest, St. Andrew northwest and St. Peter Port on the northeast.

St. Martin is one of the most expensive parishes in the island for property, with the average four-bedroom house costing £615,000.

Features include

• Football club
• Part of Petit Bot Bay
• Saint's Bay
• Petit Port
• Marble Bay – also known as Le Pied du Mur
• Part of Fermain Bay
• Jerbourg Point – the most southeasterly point in the island
• Moulin Huet Bay
• St Martin's Parish Church and Cemetery
• Sausmarez Manor
• Princess Elizabeth Hospital ("The P.E.H.")

St. Peter's

This parish is located in the west of the Island and borders the parishes of Torteval, St. Saviour's, Forest and St. Andrew.

The parish is mainly countryside with a small village in the centre. Its church is one of the most unusual in the islands as it is built at the bottom of a small valley – the interior of the church is not flat but diagonal in appearance.

Features include:

• Rocquaine Bay
• Le Crocq du Sud
• Chateau du Rocquaine
• L'Eree
• Fort Saumarez
• Lihou – a small island you can walk to at low tide

St. Peter Port

St. Peter Port is the capital of Guernsey as well as the main port. As well as being a parish, St. Peter Port is a small town consisting of many picturesque steep narrow streets and steps.

Features include:

• The Royal Court House, seat of the States of Guernsey
• Hauteville House – Victor Hugo's house of exile (now a museum run by the city of Paris)
• The Town Church – the parish church of St Peter Port
• St Peter Port Harbour
• Castle Cornet
• Elizabeth College – founded in 1563 by Elizabeth I of England
• The market, the Arcade, the High Street and the Pollet – for shopping!
• The Guernsey Aquarium

St. Sampson

St. Sampson is divided into two non-contiguous sections, the bulk of the parish lying on the east coast, with a smaller section lying on the west coast.

The roadway called The Bridge across the end of the harbour at St. Sampson's recalls the bridge that formerly linked the two parts of Guernsey at high tide.

The parish church of St. Sampson claims to be the oldest of Guernsey's parish churches.

Features include:

• The Track (sports ground)
• Delancey Park
• The island's skate park
• The island prison
• The Guernsey studio of Channel Television and BBC Guernsey
• Numerous industrial premises
• Fuel farm
• Corbet Field – home of Vale Football Club
• The Island Bowl
• The St. Sampson Douzaine

St. Saviour

St. Saviour is situated on the west coast of the island, south of the parish of Castel and north of St Pierre du Bois.

Features include the States of Guernsey reservoir, which provides a water supply to the whole island.

Torteval

Torteval is the smallest of Guernsey’s parishes. It is the westernmost parish of Guernsey. The parish is split in two by the parish of St. Pierre du Bois, the main part known as Torteval and the detached part as Pleinmont-Torteval.

Features include:

• Rugged cliffs
• Porlet fishing harbour
• Church built in 1818 with one of the oldest bells in the Channel Islands

Vale

Until 1806, Vale occupied territory on the mainland of Guernsey, the Vingtaine de l'Epine, as well as the whole of Le Clos du Valle, a tidal island forming the northern extremity of Guernsey and separated from the mainland by La Braye du Valle, a tidal channel

Features:

• L'Ancresse Common
• Le Dolmen de Déhus, incorporating a dolmen deity known as Le Gardien
• Vale Castle (which hosts the annual music festival 'Vale Earth Fair')
• Bordeaux Harbour
• Fort le Marchant shooting range