There are many reasons to be smitten with Sark. As the smallest of the four main Channel Islands (with around 500 'Sercquaise' living on the island), there are no cars and no street lights – just unpolluted, unspoilt charming landscape, and many hidden gems waiting to be discovered. The locals are wonderful, friendly and quirky – we learned Sark even has its own language, "Sercquiais" with around 15 people still speaking it today.
Don’t however be fooled by its beauty, Sark is an island you don't mess with. In August 1990, André Gardes, an unemployed nuclear physicist from France, attempted an audacious one-man invasion. After arriving on Sark, he put up posters declaring his intentions to take control the following day at noon. However, whilst changing the magazine of his automatic rifle the next morning, the island’s only volunteer police constable arrested him and the invasion came to an early and unsuccessful end.
The Clameur de haro is a traditional custom historically used on Sark. If a Sarkee believes their rights are being infringed, (to stop a neighbour from building a fence, for example) they can still issue an injunction by reciting the Lord’s Prayer and then crying “Haro, Haro, Haro! To my aid, my Prince! I am being wronged!” in French, and the disputed action must be stopped until the matter is resolved in court.
This was used as recently as 2021 in a boundary dispute affecting access to a property. Famous for having been ruled since the 16th century, in a unique, pseudo-feudal manner by a ‘Seigneur’, the constitution was modernised, only in 2008, to allow for a democratically elected council style assembly.
The locals are passionately proud of their island and quite rightly so. The lack of roads, houses andbe granted
