This page is under development September 2026
Dig Alderney has been investigating the western area of Longis Common since 2017. Finds from the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman periods have been recorded across this area since the nineteenth century. These are summarised in the RCHM volume The Archaeology of the Channel Islands, Vol. I, compiled by T. D. Kendrick and published in 1928. A gazetteer of Roman and Iron Age sites is included in Chapter 2 of A Late Roman Fort on Alderney, Channel Islands, by Jason Monaghan, published in 2026. Individual site reports appear in volumes of the Alderney Society Bulletin.
The area of study is the low ground falling from from Coastguard Cottages to the sea, and west to east from the fourth green of the golf course to the house known as the Kennels.
A Bronze Age landscape appears to be deeply buried beneath wind-blown sand. Above it is an Iron Age cemetery containing high status burials, linked to the occupation site at nearby les Huguettes. The main Iron Age settlement has not yet been found.
Roman occupation stretches over the whole area, covering two to four hectares. Less than one percent has been excavated so its nature is not known. It could an early fort pre-dating the Late Roman fort at the Nunnery, a canabae settlement related to the fort, a purely civilian town or a more dispersed semi-rural settlement akin to a ‘villa rustica’. Although early Roman material has been found, the emphasis in recent excavations has been in the later second to fourth centuries.
Excavations
2017 Electric Trench
2018-19 The Paddock
2018-19 and 2025 Rue des Mielles
2019 The western common
2024 Coastguards Field
2026 The Paddock