Île d'Er
| Île d'Er | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | Atlantic Ocean | |
| Archipelago | Breton Islands | |
| Geographical location | 48 ° 52 '22.8 " N , 3 ° 11' 13.9" W | |
|
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| surface | 4 ha | |
| Highest elevation | 25 m | |
The Île d'Er is a double island in the English Channel on the north coast of Brittany in France . It belongs to the municipality of Plougrescant in the Côtes-d'Armor department .
The privately owned main island to the north is popularly called Enez Terc'h and is inhabited. The southern La Petite Île is open to the public and uninhabited. Both islands are connected by a dam made of boulders and can be reached on foot at low tide.
The outer contour of the two islands almost forms an atoll-shaped circle, with the western side of the lake having a larger opening. The resulting inland water was used for various aquaculture tests during the second half of the 20th century .
The islands and the foreland cover an area of 424 hectares, of which the two islands account for a total of about 40 hectares, consisting of dunes, coastal heaths and swamps. On the northern main island, agriculture has been practiced on four hectares at least since the Middle Ages.
Oil pits
After the sinking of the Torrey Canyon in March 1967, and the related oil spill on the Brittany coast bearing pits were created on the island to accommodate the stranded oil. Further septic tanks on the Île d'Er were built after the sinking of the Amoco Cadiz in 1978 and the Tanio in 1980. In total, between 400 and 600 tons of oil were stored in three pits on the island for 44 years until the residues were cleared in 2011.