Saturday 12 April 2014

The Best View Bunker

I found a bunker that I'd never seen before, with a view that was absolutely breathtaking. I had noticed an intricate pattern of well worn paths on the north side of Mt Rossignol :
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=49.216953~-2.211495
and this looked like something that deserved a look on the ground :
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=49.218097~-2.213412

First you'll probably find a bunker some distance away from the one with the great view. Clamber down to this trench and you may find that an old armchair has gone here to die, spilling its stuffing all over.
The first entrance is well blocked up...
.. but farther along and there's one for those of you who always carry a torch and are happy to venture inside. I didn't :)
Instead, I was eager to proceed onwards to where I expected great views to lie in wait...
.. and I certainly wasn't disappointed. We'll have a look at the awesome views from the flat top on the left, after one quick shot down a shaft on the right here...
.. looks like you intrepid explorers could be very happy with this one as well!
So what can we see from here? All the way from south to north taking in so many of the Best of the West features.
Right a bit, Corbiere and La Rocco Towers enough for starters?
A ribbon of light, the road from La Pulente to Le Braye.
I think I may have mentioned these, beyond the driving range near Le Port.
There's a lot of pleasantly green fields, and water features...
.. the White House...
.. the Lord of the Manor's pond...
.. with its new bird hide.
And the sights continue all the way to the north...
.. with two more old towers...
.. another Bailiwick in the distance, beyond Lewis's Tower and the bunker at..
.. L'Etacq, etc. Trust me, there's so much to see from here you'll be wondering what to stare at next!
Another bunker some way away, the "doctor's house" one on Mt Matthieu.
.. plus there's a view up a little valley up to the St.Ouen's Mill and Church.And you'll get a good view of airport movements too. Etc.

What a great place to find!
If you want to take a look, it's probable that the bunker is on private land so proceed at your own discretion. The track may well be public, it's difficult to tell. The well worn paths suggest it's open to the public, at least no attempt has been made to limit access.

I'll leave choice of parking spots up to you, as far as walking to the site goes, there is the track from here :
https://maps.google.com/?ll=49.220029,-2.209003
From the lower end, it has the hallmarks of a private track but could well be a public right of way for all we know :
https://maps.google.com/?ll=49.216924,-2.212232
On more detailed maps you may find names like Chemin du Vau a Charriere suggesting a very old right of way. There's a house down there for which the only access is along these tracks, it doesn't have its own direct access to the lane Rue du Val de la Mare.

Also there's a gap in the hedge here on the main road hill, with a footpath of sorts that leads up to the heights :
https://maps.google.com/?ll=49.215607,-2.210634

If you have a great time, mention this blog when you tell people all about it! :)

UPDATE : Sept 2014
I have been informed that the bunker with the great view was the HQ of the First Battalion of the Army Coastal Artillery Regiment 1265 (or HKAR : Heeres KΓΌsten Artillerie Regiment). In the mid 1980s it was discovered that it was being developed into accommodation in contravention of the local planning laws, so that work was stopped and the bunker was 'buried'. Not very well, I'd say, thankfully!

The nearby bunker a little inland is apparently a Type 622 Personnel Shelter.

Return to bunkers index page

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great set of photos, even though you were technically trespassing upon private land!

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a Public Right of Way in Jersey!

Anonymous said...

Well I enjoyed this blog post and I've just mentioned it on our Channel Islands Occupation Society Twitter feed. Thanks and well done once again!

crapaudmatic said...

Thanks Tom, appreciate it... it would be nice to see a mention on Facebook too ;)

To Anon - there's no concept of trespass over here, that's what I've heard! Unless you're causing damage or refusing an actual request to leave, you've nothing to fear. Or maybe that's wrong. Whatever. I'll take my chances like I've always done, and I'm careful to state that anyone else proceeds at their own risk too, just in case 'condoning' such things is an offence :)

crapaudmatic said...

btw Tom the page hits surged up a whole 20 views in the hour containing your tweet, compared to the usual pitiful handful :)
Thanks

crapaudmatic said...

Ideally I'd like to see some talk about this bunker on the CIOS facebook group (or one of my friends will let me know if anyone on Unseen Jersey mentions it on their closed group).

I'd love to know more about this site, maybe the members of those groups will know? Is it just an MP lookout post with personnel bunker?

Anonymous said...

I'll email a couple people who use the Facebook page so watch that space to see if they post anything. I'm not a Facebook user so unfortunately I can't do much else I also deleted my UJ account recently due to a steady decline in activity (great site but time to move on).

Speaking of page views, I switched to running analytics from my server logs since this is much faster. I noticed something interesting. In your right sidebar you have a list of local content, with tiny favicons next to each entry, including my tomandshirley.com site. That's cool but each time someone visits you their browser pings my server and requests that favicon. No bother to me but you are leaking metadata.

What does this mean? I get very reliable stats for your crapaudmatic and crapaudverload sites, plus details like IP address, referrers, etc... . I only noticed this recently and I figure I might as well tell you since every other site on the list can do this, too. I'm big on privacy and I'll try to better organise this and do a blog post on it when I get some time. I have plenty of logs so you can delete my tomandshirley site from the list as it is no longer a blog anyway.

Here are partial examples of what I see recently. Note that readers who view the blog posts on your main page aren't counted towards specific posts, which is why it shows only seven readers for the bunker post.

What site requested a favicon from my server:
45 crapaudverload.blogspot.com
21 crapaudmatic.blogspot.com
17 crapaudmatic.blogspot.co.uk
10 crapaudverload.blogspot.co.uk
4 crapaudmatic.blogspot.fr
2 crapaudverload.blogspot.com.au
2 crapaudmatic.blogspot.ie
1 crapaudmatic.blogspot.in
1 crapaudmatic.blogspot.de
1 crapaudmatic.blogspot.fi

What pages were requested:
7 http://crapaudmatic.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-best-view-bunker.html
2 http://crapaudmatic.blogspot.com/2013/05/egypte-ayton-lair-and-les-rouaux.html
2 http://crapaudmatic.blogspot.com/2012/05/tourism-decline-hotels-gone.html

crapaudmatic said...

Thanks Tom, I've had a go at turning that off, so I hope you're no longer seeing anything!
Thanks

Anonymous said...

Hi, I owe you an apology Crapaudmatic. I have checked and you are totally correct in saying that there is no concept of trespass over here. As you say, as long as you are not causing damage and leave promptly if asked to leave then you are ok. However, there is definitely no such thing as "a Public Right of Way" in Jersey.

crapaudmatic said...

Thanks for checking! That could probably make the basis of an interesting JEP article but the Landed Gentry higher up the food chain would stamp on it and block publication for fear of mass 'trespass' :)

But I bet that if there was ever a real problem, somehow the required laws would be brought in pretty quick! I hope this rare beneficial part of the Jersey Way stays as it is...

Joshua said...

What about haunted spots? Those are always interesting.
...And deadly

James said...

Are you ever going to post photos again? Sincerely hope so, as miss them. Have you got yourself a drone yet? ;)

crapaudmatic said...

Hi James, thanks for missing me :)

Perhaps. I just don't seem to have the time, energy or motivation these days. I'm still taking photos just the same, and they're building up a bit! Please stay tuned...

synergy5013 said...

Great blogg

Anonymous said...

A great complex and well off the beaten track.

This land has recently changed hands, it used to be a friend of mine who owned it but no sadly longer.

JB

crapaudmatic said...

Thanks JB, have you been inside? Do you know of any photos anywhere? Thanks

Anonymous said...

I have some somewhere, its a mess in there unfortunately. Ill send them across when I find them! :-)

crapaudmatic said...

Thanks again JB, would be good to see in there!