We were reluctant to take on this building until we actually went to see it. As often, there proved to be much more to it, and to the place, than a description or a snapshot could convey. Therefore we bought it and its owner also sold us the field of five vergees in which the tower stands.

The field is called Le Clos de Hercanty. Hercanty means ‘tilted menhir’, and one corner of the tower, tantalisingly, is built on a large half-buried slab of diorite. Moreover, on this boulder is carved a compass rose and a date, 1644, so something has been going on here for a long time. It seems that the menhir was once a navigation mark, next to which a small rectangular lookout was built. In 1821 Philippe Nicolle, who had just bought the field, added a light-hearted Gothick octagon with the present very pretty sitting-room on the first floor.

In 1943 the Germans, to make an observation or control position here, astutely raised the roof of the octagon by one more storey, so that no change would be noticed from the air. As this latest addition is part of the history of the tower, we have left it there, with its slit eyes and German ranging marks on its thick concrete ceiling. The tower stands 160 feet up, well back from the coast, with, it need hardly be said, views over the sea and island in every direction.

View our history sheet for this Landmark

Sleeps: 2