This is Jersey’s largest wild inland area (and unofficial national park), with an abundance of flora and fauna living in a variety of habitats.
Attractions St. Ouen
If possible visit Les Mielles before you tour the island’s other wild places, because this is the best location to get a feel for Jersey’s natural history and there are two interpretation centres featuring local wildlife - the Frances Le Sueur Centre and Kempt Tower.
The Frances Le Sueur Centre has good access and toilet facilities. Kempt Tower is not wheelchair-friendly, but if you have some mobility (or strong helpers) the climb up the steps is worthwhile.
Les Mielles is the coastal plain that stretches from La Pulente in the south of St. Ouen’s Bay to L’Etacq in the north. The area includes Les Blanches Banques, the sand dune system at the southern end of the bay, where over 400 plant species have been identified.
In late spring and early summer there are carpets of flowering plants and grasses throughout the entire bay. Most striking are the common and Jersey thrift, hares-tails and quaking grasses, burnet rose, purple-vipers bugloss, tree lupin, evening primrose, tree mallow and sea holly.
Skylarks, meadow pipits, linnets and ‘charms’ of goldfinches are resident’s, listen for their songs in the grasslands. Hovering kestrels can be seen regularly.
There are several vantage-points, with car parking, in Les Mielles where the birds can be watched and heard without straying too far from your vehicle, and there are two picnic areas, with parking, near the Frances Le Sueur Centre, both are signposted.
Also there is a bird-hide, accessible by wheelchair, which overlooks the pond almost opposite Kempt Tower. A pathway runs inland from the car park across the road from Kempt Tower, and the hide is less than a hundred metres on the left.
PTGH wish to thank Jersey Tourism for their help in providing the above information. 22/11/05
