Walk along to the first crossing and turn left.
Follow the footpath down the hill through the gorse to Petit Port.
Turn right along the main road and follow the marked footpath to
the left towards St Ouen. Walk around the slipway and up the wooden
steps, to join the footpath round L'Oeillere headland.
St Ouen's Bay, known as the Five Mile Road (the
Jersey French name for a sand-dune is Mielle) stretches out to the
north, with the late 18th century La Rocco tower the central feature.
Notice the bunkers and the anti-tank walls around the bay, part
of the massive defensive installations ordered by Berlin in 1941.
The firm sand is an ideal surface for motor racing
in the summer and the Atlantic swell provides for excellent surfing.
Notice the long slipway or Charriere used by farmers when gathering
vraic (seaweed) in the autumn to fertilise the potato fields.
The Pulente Inn is superbly located at the end of
the bay, offering a selection of ales, and high quality food. There
is an upstairs restaurant with views of the bay, and plenty of tables
outside.
Continue by returning to the headland track, and
turn up the steep steps to the top of the headland. Turn left at
the crossing and look for La Sergente passage grave, a dolmen from
stone-age times.
Return to the crossing and continue down the hill
to the north. Turn left along at the bottom of the hill, then left
again to follow and then cross the stream. Turn left up the main
road for a short distance, then first right between the bungalows.
This lane leads to the Corbiere Walk. Turn left,
cross two main roads and look out for the granite sign to Le Beau
Port and Mont des Croix. Red squirrels can often be seen here. They
are beginning to re-appear after losing much of their habitat in
the devastating hurricane of October 1987 when thousands of trees
were lost.
Turn right towards Le Beau Port and walk through
the housing estate. Cross the main road into the Les Creux Millennium
Park.
Turn right by the Bowls Club down the track marked
to St Brelade's Bay and Le Beau Port. A Green Lizard may be seen
sunbathing on a rock around here! There are also more examples of
sculptor Derek Tristram's work on the headland.
Now take the cliff path towards the west, keeping
the sea on the left. All the rocks and bays have names, from La
Grosse Tete at the edge of Beau Port bay, Les Caines reef close
inshore, and the rock-strewn Fiquet Bay. Much of the granite used
in 18th and 19th century defences was quarried along this part of
the coast.
The unmistakable prison compound now looms up, known
locally as the La Moye Hilton. Follow the footpath signs past the
prison and back onto the headland, leaving the meteorological weather
station close on the left-hand side. The track leads through Gorselands
Nature Reserve, where stonechat, linnet and Dartford warbler are
winter visitors and a variety of heathland wild flowers can be seen.
Take the next metalled road back inland, then cross
over the main road to rejoin the Corbiere Walk. Turn left and return
to Corbiere Point and The Phare for a well-earned drink! The fields
on either side of the track are often filled with crows and magpies
- the name Corbiere derives from the French Corbeau (crow).