LOCATION

Les Hanois Lighthouse

Simon Langlois has a particular fascination with Les Hanois lighthouse — in large part because his failing eyesight means that while he’s heard much talk of it, he’s seen nothing more than its regular night-time flashes. In book 1, Dead in the Water, he urges Ollie to take the Huffin’ Puffin out on a trip around the island — a trip that could involve a trip to see the lighthouse up close which, if they were ever to undertake it, would be very dangerous indeed.

Remus Carey knows better than to get close to the rocks surrounding the lighthouse, but he does use it as a navigational point when, ‘at last he rounded the headland and lined up the prow with the bulb of the lighthouse. The course he had chosen would keep him clear of the rocks at Pezeries until he turned at the back of the fort.’

Les Hanois lighthouse

Les Hanois stands a mile off Guernsey’s south west coast where it can be seen clearly from the headland at Pleinmont. It was built by and is maintained by Trinity House, the lighthouse authority for England, Wales and the Channel Islands, which also built some cottages at the back of Portelet. These are no longer required to house active staff since the lighthouse was automated in 1996.

Constructed between 1860 and 1862 to a design by James Douglass by Cornish stonemasons (from Cornish granite) it became the template on which all subsequent lighthouses were based on account of having its blocks dovetailed into one another both horizontally and vertically for greater strength.

The light itself, which is solar powered, reaches 20 miles out to sea from the Les Hanois reef on which the lighthouse is built (and from which it takes its name). It flashes twice every 13 seconds.

Read more about Les Hanois Lighthouse

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

Les Hanois Lighthouse 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…

Les Hanois Lighthouse in context

Les Hanois Lighthouse in brief

Although the lighthouse doesn’t need permanent staff any more, it does need to be visited from time to time. Such visits would now be conducted by helicopter courtesy of the helipad, added in 1979, that gives the building its distinctive flat top. The solar panels that charge the light are mounted below this.

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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.