Elizabeth Castle

Elizabeth Castle was built on a small island in the bay at St Helier. It can be reached at low tide by a causeway. While I was waiting for the water to clear the causeway, I did some bird watching and spotted lots of oyster catchers, various gulls, some Brent geese and a little egret. The little egret was an exciting find as I've not seen one at the coast before, only on inland rivers. The advantage of holidaying alone was that there was nobody with me to get bored by me watching birds!

I walked over the causeway, glad of my waterproof shoes because there was water flowing over it still in places. As the tide went out, huge areas of sand and rock pools were revealed. The castle is a combination of several hundred years of buildings and fortifications, including most recently some concrete bunkers and gun sites added by the Nazis during the WWII occupation of the Channel Islands. It was a really interesting historical site and also fun to explore. Behind the castle is a series of breakwaters and the site of the mediaeval abbey built to commemorate St Helier, a hermit who lived on this rock and was killed and later canonised. Next to this is a German WWII troop shelter. There are also some WWII German bunkers on the site of the castle which are a little eerie to explore.