Tatihou is an
islandAn island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, .There are two main types of islands:...
of
NormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the English Channel coast of Northern France between Brittany and Picardy and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands.Normandy is divided between French and British...
in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
with an area of 290,000 square
metreThe metre or meter is the basic unit of length in the International System of Units . Historically, the metre was defined by the French Academy of Sciences as the length between two marks on a platinum-iridium bar, which was designed to represent one ten-millionth of the distance from the Equator...
s. It is located to the east of the Cotentin peninsula just off the coast near
Saint-Vaast-la-HougueSaint-Vaast-la-Hougue is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.-Geography:Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue is situated in the Manche département, in the Basse-Normandie région. It is in the Quettehou canton, of the Cherbourg arrondissement...
. It is almost uninhabited, and is usually reached by amphibious boat although, being a
tidal islandA tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands many of them have been sites of religious worship, such as Mont Saint Michel with its...
, it is also possible at low tide to walk there over the local
oysterThe word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
beds. Access to the island is limited to 500 visitors per day.
Tatihou, like many of the islets of the
Channel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
contains the
-hou-hou is a suffix found commonly in Channel Islands and Norman names. It is the Norman language version of the Old Norse holmr, meaning a small island, and often found anglicised elsewhere as "holm". It can still be found in modern Scandinavian languages, e.g...
suffix.
In 1692 the naval Battle of La Hougue took place between the English and the French close to the island of Tatihou.
Discussion
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Tatihou is an
islandAn island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, .There are two main types of islands:...
of
NormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the English Channel coast of Northern France between Brittany and Picardy and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands.Normandy is divided between French and British...
in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
with an area of 290,000 square
metreThe metre or meter is the basic unit of length in the International System of Units . Historically, the metre was defined by the French Academy of Sciences as the length between two marks on a platinum-iridium bar, which was designed to represent one ten-millionth of the distance from the Equator...
s. It is located to the east of the Cotentin peninsula just off the coast near
Saint-Vaast-la-HougueSaint-Vaast-la-Hougue is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.-Geography:Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue is situated in the Manche département, in the Basse-Normandie région. It is in the Quettehou canton, of the Cherbourg arrondissement...
. It is almost uninhabited, and is usually reached by amphibious boat although, being a
tidal islandA tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands many of them have been sites of religious worship, such as Mont Saint Michel with its...
, it is also possible at low tide to walk there over the local
oysterThe word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
beds. Access to the island is limited to 500 visitors per day.
History
Tatihou, like many of the islets of the
Channel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
contains the
-hou-hou is a suffix found commonly in Channel Islands and Norman names. It is the Norman language version of the Old Norse holmr, meaning a small island, and often found anglicised elsewhere as "holm". It can still be found in modern Scandinavian languages, e.g...
suffix.
In 1692 the naval Battle of La Hougue took place between the English and the French close to the island of Tatihou. In 1756 the surroundings of La Hougue were defended by many batteries and forts, but the lack of regular maintenance ensured that these quickly fell into disrepair. In 1720 Tatihou was used for
quarantiningQuarantine is voluntary or compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease...
plague victims from Marseilles.
On 10 December 1803, the 36-gun frigate
HMS ShannonThe third HMS Shannon was a 36-gun frigate of the British Royal Navy built at Frindsbury on the River Medway on the Thames Estuary. She was completed on 3 September, 1803 during the Napoleonic Wars...
grounded on Tatihou. All her crew survived to be captured by troops from a battery. The next day a party from HMS
Merlin burned
Shannon to prevent her arms and stores falling into French hands.
Culture
Tatihou has hosted a small folk festival since 1995,
Les Traversées Tatihou, every August 15. The hours are selected according to the tides to allow the festival goers home. The island also hosts music courses several times a year.
Flora and fauna
An ornithological reserve was founded in 1990 with an area of 30,000 square metres. The island is a stopping place for many migrating birds, including the
Herring GullThe Herring Gull, Larus argentatus, is a large gull , and is the most abundant and best known of all gulls along the shores of Asia, western Europe, and North America. It breeds across North America, Europe and Asia...
,
Great Black-backed GullThe Great Black-backed Gull, Larus marinus, is a very large gull which breeds on the European and North American coasts and islands of the North Atlantic...
,
Common ShelduckThe Common Shelduck is a widespread and common duck of the Genus Tadorna. Fossil bones from Dorkovo described as Balcanas pliocaenica may actually belong to this species...
,
Little EgretThe Little Egret is a small white heron. It is the Old World counterpart to the very similar New World Snowy Egret.-Subspecies:...
,
EiderEiders are large seaducks in the genus Somateria. Steller's Eider, despite its name, is in a different genus.The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern hemisphere.-Species:*Common Eider Somateria mollissima...
,
WigeonThe Wigeon or Eurasian Wigeon is one of three species of wigeon in the dabbling duck genus Anas. It is common and widespread within its range...
,
Yellow-legged GullThe Yellow-legged Gull is a large gull of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. It is sometimes considered to be part of the same species as the Caspian Gull and the combined species is then called Larus cachinnans....
. There is also a botanical garden on the island.
External links