Alderney

With an area of three square miles, Alderney is the third-largest of the Channel Islands, after Jersey and Guernsey. It is also the most northerly Channel Island and, as a result, the closest Channel Island to France.

It has a population of around 2000 people; its only town, and capital, is St Anne. It is connected to Guernsey by air, having its own airport, and the official airline of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, Aurigny, takes its name from the traditional name of Alderney.

Aurigny Trislander G-JOEY at Guernsey airport

Alderney also has the only railway line in the Channel Islands.

History of Alderney

Like the other Channel Islands, Alderney shows evidence of having been habited during the Neolithic era, and by Romans. It was part of the Duchy of Normandy but remained with the English crown from 1204 onwards.

As a result, it was heavily fortified to deter a French invasion, which involved the construction of what may be the island’s most notable feature: the particularly long breakwater at Braye Harbour.

During the Second World War, Alderney was occupied by German forces and the entire native population was evacuated. The Germans built two work camps and two concentration camps on the island. The inmates were forced to work on the fortification of the Channel Islands, and when the residents of Alderney returned to their home island in December 1945 — almost seven months after the island was liberated on 16 May 1945 — they found many concrete bunkers that remain there today.

Photo credit: The aerial view of Alderney used in this post was contributed to Wikimedia by Fotowerkstatt. The original can be found here.

Read more about Alderney

A body on a beach, an impossible alibi and an unstoppable race against time!

Alderney appears in The Sarnian, the explosive adventure series in which the discovery of a dead body on one of Guernsey's most secluded beaches blows the lid on a world of intrigue and deceit.

Click below to download your copy today…

Alderney in context

Alderney in brief

Alderney is the most northerly of the Channel Islands, and like its neighbours it shows signs of having been habited since the neolithic age. It was evacuated prior to the German invasion during the Second World War. In the islanders’ absence, the German troops set up two work camps and two concentration camps on the island, and heavily fortified it as part of the Atlantic Wall.

FREE Guernsey newsletter

Don't miss our weekly update on Guernsey's fascinating history. We promise never to sell your data to anyone else, and there's a super-easy unsubscribe link on the bottom of each email so you can leave whenever you want.

Search the archive

The Sarnian series of books is published by Ovingo Limited. Ovingo Limited is a private limited company, registered in England and Wales, number 7468217. Registered office: 16 The Maltings, Roydon Road, Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire, SG12 8UU.

For the avoidance of doubt

All of the characters, organisations, publications and narrative of the Sarnian series, any related publications, products and web sites are fictitious. Characters, events, organisations and publications are not intended to refer to actual entities or events and any similarity is unintentional and entirely coincidental.

What's this all about?

This web site, and its contents, are here to support The Sarnian, a series of books set on and around the Channel Islands, and Guernsey in particular. It started as a means of keeping track of each character so that their features, loves, desires, abilities, looks and so on didn't change from book to book and has grown to become a complete encyclopedia of the series. Unless otherwise stated, the images included on this site were taken by The Sarnian author, Nik Rawlinson, who is also the author of the content.