We have been invited by our lovely friends to visit their island home of Guernsey and I thought as it is our first time visiting Guernsey, I’d share some fun facts about the island. More to come about our time on the island in an upcoming blog. 

• Guernsey is the second largest of the Channel Islands after Jersey
• Guernsey has been independent since 1204
• It is not a sovereign state but rather a dependency of the British Crown
• It has its own parliament, The States of Guernsey, democratically elected every 4 years
• Officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey, it is an archipelago of islands. As well as Guernsey itself there is Sark, Herm, Alderney, Jehou, Brecqhou and Lihou as well as other smaller rocky islands some of them only visible at low tide
• The island of Guernsey is 10km wide and has an area of 62 sq km, you can walk the circumference in a day
• The capital of Guernsey is St Peter Port, it is also the main port
• It has a population of 65,000 people
• The symbol of the island is the Guernsey Lily
• There is a traditional local language known as Guernésiais, with its roots in Latin and an influence of Old Norse and English. There is a rich tradition of poetry and songs inspired by the sea in the language.
• It controls its own economy and tax law and has no capital gains, inheritance or sales tax
• Guernsey is widely know for private banking, financial and insurance services
• The British Pound note still remains in use on the island some 30 years after it was removed from circulation in England. The island prints its own bank notes. It is legal tender throughout the UK but can pose a problem as sales staff are not familiar with the notes
• Guernsey also issues its own stamps
• The population numbers are regulated through their housing market, split between ‘local market’ and ‘open market’. Only if you are born or qualify as a local can you buy a local market home otherwise you will need to purchase or rent a home from the open market, where prices are considerably higher.
• There are roadside vegetable stalls throughout the island with honesty boxes for payment, they are called it ‘Hedge Veg”  
• The Guernsey cow is known for it’s rich creamy milk and docile nature
• Guernsey was the only part of the British Isles invaded and occupied by the Germans during WWII. And Guernsey celebrates Liberation Day on May 9th each year
• Les Misérables was written by Victor Hugo while in exile in Guernsey, he had a home in St Peter Port
• The painter Pierre-Augustus Renoir lived in Guernsey for a month in 1883 and painted some 15 works featuring the island
• The oldest pillar postbox still in use in the British Isles can be found in Union Street, St Peter Port, and dates back to 1853
• Guernsey has one of the largest tidal ranges in the world, with a range of up to 10 meters
• Many houses in the west of Guernsey have an outcrop of granite rock called a ‘witches’ seat’ for witches to stop and rest and not wreak havoc.
• There is a rich fairy folklore in Guernsey and there is a Fairy Ring on the far western point of the island at Plienmont.
• Guernsey saw the world’s first underwater arrest, when a scuba diving policeman arrested a man illegally harvesting ormers, a shellfish also known as abalone.
• Sark one of Guernsey’s islands was designated Europe’s first ‘Dark Sky Community’ and the first “Dark Sky’ island in the world.