Long before the age of artillery, in 1204, King John of England lost the Duchy of Normandy. In response, to defend the Island from the French, medieval castles were built at Gorey and Grosnez. However, within 300 years, the age of the sword, bow and arrow was being replaced by cannon and muskets. By the time of the late 16th Century, artillery had made its presence felt both on the battlefield, at sea, as well as in fortifications. Jersey’s Mont Orgueil castle was heavily modified and adapted to become an artillery platform, before effectively being abandoned and replaced firstly by Elizabeth Castle and purpose built artillery forts, round towers and purpose built emplacements. A town citadel, Fort Regent, was the culmination of these works.
In the 20th Century, the occupying Germans, adapted the older fortified positions and built their own to effectively make Jersey a tethered floating battleship commanding the sea all around. The Age of Artillery tour will effectively allow you to compare and contrast British artillery of the 19th century with that of Nazi Germany a hundred years later.
The Age of Artillery Tour takes a full day, and can be booked as a Private Tour on any day in our Calendar. When you book add “Age of Artillery” in the requests. There will be some additional entrance fees payable on the day – these will depend on the precise itinerary and thigs like whether sites are tide accessible. Contact us to discuss your tour.
For further information about Group tours, please contact us using our Contact details
Jersey Military Tours Age of Artillery Highlights
- Jersey Round Towers
- Mont Orgueil Castle
- North coast 18th and 19th century forts
- St Ouen’s Bay
- Elizabeth Castle
- Fort Regent
- Batterie Lothringen, Noirmont
- St Aubin’s Fort
Click the Map icon (below main image in grey bar to the right) to view locations and further information or click here to view all locations
Jersey Military Tours are devised in a way to give our guests an overall and enjoyable experience which means that we won’t always follow the same route or stop at all the highlights below, although we will do our best to do so. This gives us the ability to make changes either to take advantage of, or to mitigate against factors such as weather or other delays which might affect timing. On full day tours, we stop at lunch times where refreshments/food can be purchased and on all tours, we will stop as necessary for refreshments and comfort breaks.
Jersey Military Tours are a combination of a vehicle tour and exploring the sites on foot. Please refer to the Level of Fitness Grading.
For what’s included and Prices, see Information below
We offset our carbon footprint for each tour and additionally match it with a donation towards seagrass conservation
