Renoir Cottage

Please read accessibility and safety information before booking.  Please note when making a booking, Check-in is 2.00pm and Check-out is 10am. Minimum stay is 2 days.

Built in 1780, to defend the bay of Moulin Huet from Napoleonic invasion, the Watch house and battery was lost in time.  Over the last ten years the Watch house, Battery and surrounding area has been renovated and restored.  Over the many years since the cottage was built it has had many uses. 

Firstly, being used as a watch house to services as many as 26 offices and soldiers to man the two huge 24-pound Blomefield cannons which weighed two and a half ton and a further half ton oak carriage.  Each cannon had a range of about 1 mile and fired a 24-pound cannon ball.  For some time after the Napoleonic war the watch house and battery remained the property of the Ministry of Defence it was sold by public auction in the early 1900s but was lived in and farmed by many people.  After the Napoleonic war a retired gunnery officer for the large fortress of Fort George lived in it, with his wife.  

Between 1842 and 1843 the site was used by silver miners of Blanchelande as accommodation, additional structures were erected on site which were made of corrugated iron, evidence of this was found on excavation of the battery site.  A local lady and her husband lived in the Watchhouse in the late 1840's, they farmed the land and fished.  It was at this time the cottage was painted white, which would have been a striking sea mark, some of the original paint still remains today.  The Watchhouse was open as a picnic house serving lemonade, tea and hiring picnic equipment such as, linen and cutlery.  

The site was visited in 1859 by the Famous French author Victor Hugo, who lived in exile in Guernsey between 1851 and 1870.  Victor Hugo spent a lot of time at the bay of Moulin Huet, writing and relaxing.  

In 1883 the French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir visited Guernsey for about one month when he painted 15 paintings of the area around the cottage and Moulin Huet Bay.   Renoir's painting (Brouillard a Guernsey) Fog on Guernsey, was created around this time.  The cottage you see today is depicted in the painting in its full glory above the bay of Moulin Huet. 

The site was lived in and farmed until the Occupation of the Channel Islands in 1940, when the site was again used as a defensive position with a 3.8mm flak cannon being installed, on the site.  In late 1940 the site was used for training troops in the use of captured munitions, from Dunkirk and other European countries, leading to major damage being caused to the structure of the old watch house.  Other buildings were also destroyed in the area at this time.  

In early 1941 the whole valley was abandoned as a defensive position as it was deemed to be too vulnerable, and the bay was defended from above the valley.  The valley and beaches were heavily mined with S Mines, large roll bombs hung from the cliff edge of the valley and a mass of barbed wire covered the beaches, paths and cliff edges. 

The area is now listed as a site of special significance for its natural beauty and is of special interest.  Many attractions can be found nearby including the Renoir Walk and Moulin Huet Tea Rooms, which is Over 100 years old.  The bay itself makes for good swimming and many other water sports.  Its natural beauty and its abundance of local wildlife from rare insects to the occasional sightings of pods of dolphins and seals.  Many native birds of both land and sea can be spotted with many sightings of raptors in the area, which makes it great for bird spotting.   At night-time there is little light pollution and many bats and night-time insects can be spotted, on a good dark clear night the Milky way can be seen which makes it a great site for simply gazing at the carpet of stars.