The Nunnery
Has been described as a Certain Fortified Manor House, and also as a Certain Artillery Fort
There are major building remains
| Name | The Nunnery |
| Alternative Names | Les Murs de Bas; Chateau de Longis; Lower Fort; Castrum Longini; Lower Fort |
| Historic Country | Alderney |
| Modern Authority | Alderney |
| 1974 Authority | A |
| Civil Parish | |
The Roman fort, known locally as the 'Nunnery', is found at the bottom of Bluestone Hill. This site epitomises the way that strategically important positions on Alderney have been adopted and reused during each wave of fortifications the island.
Located at the western end of Longis beach the small fort, once known as Les Murs de Bas, or Lower Fort, and known today as the ‘Nunnery’, is, after recent archaeological investigations, now considered to be almost certainly Roman in origin. Its shape has striking resemblances to the five Roman so-called signal-station forts on the Yorkshire coast. This fort is the first evidence of military construction in Alderney. In addition the fort was used during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as a hospital and married quarters in Victorian times and was converted to a German strong point in the Second World War. (Alderney The Channel Island website)
First recorded as a military blockhouse in the 14th century, by the late 16th century it had become home to the Chamberlain family, governors of Alderney. In 1739, when English military surveyors planned it, the building was ruinous, but was refortified with cannons, before becoming a barracks and then a farm. (Monaghan 2011)
Aldernay was surveyed with consideration for a defence in 1547 and work was in progress by 1549. By 1553 £9210 had been spent but in 1554 Queen Mary's Council order the work stopped, the ordnance to be removed and the buildings to be 'rased and defaced'. Although dismantled rather than demolished, the forts were never rehabilitated, and for the rest of the sixteenth century Alderney remained without effective defences. The Tudor forts appear to have been those known as Essex Fort, overlooking the harbour in Longis Bay, and the 'Chateau de Longis', or 'the Nunnery' (as it was later called), on the shore of the same bay
The latter incorporated the shell of an earlier fortification possibly of Roman date, and was converted into a dwelling in 1584-6. The former was never finished and was partly demolished to make way for a Victorian fort in the 1840s. (HKW)
Not scheduled
Not Listed
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | |
| Latitude | 49.7210006713867 |
| Longitude | -2.17600011825562 |
| Eastings | 0 |
| Northings | 0 |
