Jersey : Ice Age Island
The Channel Islands Heritage Festival celebrates a group of small islands with a big history; the 2016 festival will honour the Islands’ timeless relationship with their coastline and the sea. The Channel Islands past is woven into its present and its heritage is just one of its many outstanding features.
Capture the spirit of the Islands’ history and plan your short break today taking in what each of our islands has to offer.
The 2016 Channel Islands Heritage Festival takes place between Friday 25 March and Tuesday 10 May.
Neanderthal at Ice Age Island Exhibition
Visit an exhibition that sheds a new light on Jersey’s Ice Age past
Jersey: Ice Age Island, at Jersey Museum, brings together Jersey’s Ice Age story, illustrating the importance of the archaeological sites located around the island at La Cotte de St Brelade and Les Varines and is based on a concept created by the Natural History Museum in London. The exhibition is the culmination of three years of archaeological fieldwork. A team of experts has revisited previous material discovered on the Island, and uncovered exciting new items that redefine our understanding of Jersey’s landscape and human occupation.
Jersey is emerging as an Ice Age jewel and a key location for understanding human evolution, expansion and survival over a quarter of a million years of climate change. The Island’s Ice Age archaeology presented in this exhibition tells of how our Neanderthal cousins survived in northwest Europe. The exhibition uses visual and multi-media displays, as well as items on loan from the British Museum and Natural History Museum London to capture the significance of the archaeological material and present it in an engaging and thought provoking way.
Events during that Channel Island Heritage Festival, which will get you up close and personal with Jersey’s ice age past:
Neanderthals and a Notorious Beauty
3, 10, 17, 24 April and 1, 8 May
Take a guided walk with Blue Badge Guide Nigel Diggle from St Aubin which will take you past an old court house, a manor house and above one of Europe’s most important Neanderthal caves. Experience coastal foot paths with spectacular views, green lanes and farming country full of spring colour, smells and sounds.
Price: £12.50
Time: 10.00 – 13.30
Outside St Aubin’s Parish Hall
Grade: Difficult
Distance: 4.5 miles
Ice Age Jersey Kayak Tour
Kayaking in Jersey’s south coast
9, 10, 16 & 17 April & 7 May
Kayak across St Brelade’s Bay to the foot of the raised sea cave at La Cotte, a world renowned Neanderthal site. Viewed from below, the raised beaches from former sea levels and take a paddle along the route the mammoth hunters would have walked.
Price: £25 (includes hire of kayak and wet suit)
Time: 9, 10 April & 7 May 12.00-14.00
16 & 17 April 14.00- 16.00
Duration: 2 hours
Meeting point: Given at time of booking
Grade: Medium
Heritage on Tap – Jersey Heritage Pub Talks
Old Smugglers Inn Jersey
Monday 11 April
Discover the secrets of La Cotte and Jersey’s incredible Ice Age past with Dr Beccy Scott of the British Museum plus object handling with archaeology curator Olga Finch.
Price: £10 includes a drink on arrival
Time: 18.00 – 19.30
Venue: The Old Smugglers Inn, Quaisne Bay
Jersey Heritage Ice Age Island Exhibition Talk
Thursday 21 April
Join Olga Finch, Curator of Archaeology at the Jersey Museum, for a fascinating insight into this captivating exhibition. Jersey: Ice Age Island was created by Jersey Heritage based on a concept created by the Natural History Museum, London. This amazing Island holds clues to what the world was like hundreds of thousands of years ago. The Jersey landscape was shaped by immense forces – extreme cold and the power of the waves.
Price: Normal admission prices apply
Time: 10.30-11.30
Venue: Jersey Museum, St Helier
For more information about these events and other events happening during the Channel Island Heritage Festival visit www.visitchannelislands.com
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