West Coast: Five Mile Bay

St Ouën's Bay is Jersey's Atlantic front: five miles of sand, dunes and surf facing nothing but open sea. Along it stand the defences of two centuries — Napoleonic towers at Kempt, Lewis and La Tour Carrée, German bunkers and the great Battery Moltke — and behind it the dune wilderness of Les Blanches Banques with its standing stones. At the northern end the land climbs to Grosnez, where a ruined castle gate looks out to the other islands and Le Pinacle rises from the cliffs below. Come for the towers, stay for the sunset: the whole coast faces due west.