Bonne Nuit, good night, is one of the prettiest names on the Jersey map: a little harbour tucked under the cliffs of St John on the north coast, with a stone pier, a handful of houses and a rock or two standing out in the water.
One of those rocks is supposed to be a horse. The story, as Visit Jersey gives it, is about a pair of young lovers, Anne-Marie and William, and a sea sprite who wanted Anne-Marie for himself. To get William out of the way, the sprite came ashore in the shape of a beautiful white stallion, the idea being that William would mount it and be carried off into the sea and drowned. William was not taken in, or not entirely. He had mistletoe with him, the old protective plant, and he used it against the creature. The spell broke, the horse was turned to stone where it stood, and it can still be seen in Bonne Nuit Bay.
The water horse that lures riders to their deaths is a figure found all round the Atlantic coasts, from the Scottish kelpie to the Breton and Norman versions, and Jersey's story is recognisably one of the family. The Visit Jersey page does not name the rock, and we have not been able to confirm from our sources which of the rocks in the bay is meant, so the map pin marks the bay rather than a single stone.
The History Press's description of Erren Michaels' Jersey Legends (2015) lists 'the demon of Bonne Nuit' alongside the Hougue Bie dragon and the witches of Rocqueberg as Jersey's most famous fables, which suggests this one, unlike some newer stories, has a long local history.
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