Access to the island across the causeway can be done when the tide is 3m or lower. Please check the tides BEFORE crossing to ensure you have enough time to return. You can do this at http://tides.digimap.gg/ . Do not cross the causeway once it is awash as the tides are particularly dangerous here.
Please respect this nature reserve; stick to the central paths if the birds are nesting; and remove all your litter.
Due to the nature of the land, the tidal erosion causing unstable cliffs, and steep drops at the old quarry, please be careful and make sure children are supervised at all times.
Thank you.
Les Houmets are a group of islands just off Bordeaux in the Vale and their name derives from a Guernsey French word meaning islets.
Houmet Paradis was previously known as Houmet de L’Eperquerie, but when it was purchased by the Collas family they changed the name to reflect their own estate at Paradis.
Over the years, the island has been used as a place to gut fish, for grazing cattle and has been quarried. It was even the location in Victor Hugo’s book "The Toilers of the Sea" that his hero, Gilliat, committed suicide by drowning.
James Watson of Newcastle upon Tyne purchased the island in 1951 for £500 and in 2004 his descendants sold it to a group of anonymous locals with the objective of maintaining the island as a nature reserve to be managed by the National Trust of Guernsey.