Alderney

Alderney (French: Aurigny; Auregnais: Aoeur'gny) is the most northerly of the Channel Islands and a British crown dependency. It is part of the bailiwick of Guernsey. It is 3 miles (5 km) long and 2 miles (3 km) wide making it the third largest island of the Channel Islands. more...

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It is around 10 miles to the west of La Hague in the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, in France, 20 miles to the north-east of Guernsey and 60 miles from the south coast of England. It is the closest of the Channel Islands to France as well as being the closest to England. It is separated from Cap de la Hague by the dangerous Race of Alderney (Le Raz).

The island has a population of 2400 people, and they are traditionally nicknamed lapins after the number of rabbits seen in the island. The only parish of Alderney is the parish of St Anne, which doubles as the main town, and features a pretty church and cobbled high street. There are a primary school, a secondary school, a post office, hotels, restaurants, banks and shops. Alderney has a somewhat ageing population, being popular with people wanting somewhere quiet to retire.

History

Alderney shares a history with the other Channel Islands, becoming an island in the Neolithic period as the waters of the Channel rose.

The etymology of the Island's name is obscure. It is known in Latin as Riduna (giving the rarely-used adjective Ridunian for inhabitants of Alderney), but as with the names of the all the Channel Islands in the Roman period there is a degree of confusion. Riduna may be the original name of Tatihou, while Alderney is conjectured to be identified with Sarmia. Alderney/Aurigny is variously supposed to be a Germanic or Celtic name. It may be a corruption of Adreni or Alrene, which is probably derived from an Old Norse word meaning "island near the coast". Alternatively it may derive from three Norse elements: alda (swelling wave, roller), renna (strong current, race) and oy or ey (island).

After choosing independence from France and loyalty to the English monarch in his role as the Duke of Normandy, in 1204, Alderney developed slowly and was not much involved with the rest of the world. That is, however, until the British government decided to undertake massive fortifications in the 19th century and to create a strategic harbour to deter attacks from France. These fortifications were presciently described by William Ewart Gladstone as "a monument of human folly, useless to us ... but perhaps not absolutely useless to a possible enemy, with whom we may at some period have to deal, and who may possibly be able to extract some profit in the way of shelter and accommodation from the ruins." An influx of English and Irish labourers, plus the sizable British garrison stationed in the island, led to rapid anglicization. The harbour was never completed - the remaining breakwater (designed by James Walker) is one of the island's landmarks, and is longer than any breakwater in the UK.

Read more at Wikipedia.org