Dixcart Bay hotel to reopen in Sark after eight years

The Dixcart Bay will be the fourth hotel on Sark at which visitors to the island can stay

A hotel on Sark will reopen to guests for the first time in eight years.

Sark Estate Management has confirmed Dixcart Bay Hotel will open in a similar way to La Moinerie Hotel, which welcomed guests back in 2019.

The company, owned by the Barclay brothers, had closed all four of its hotels on Sark in November 2014, due to a lack of business.

The two other hotels in the group - the Aval du Creux and Petit Champ - were closed earlier in 2014 and remain shut.

Sark Estate Management's Kevin Delaney said he hoped the Dixcart Bay would be able to take bookings "for the week of Sarkfest" - in July.

Helen Plummer from Sark's Tourism Committee said it was "good news" for Sark.

She said so far it had been a good tourist season with more than 10,000 people visiting in 2022, and that the reopening of the Dixcart Bay would only improve the offering from the island.

That will take the number of hotels on Sark up to four, together with La Moinerie, La Sablonnerie and Stocks.

Affordable housing

Sark Estate Management said it was also looking to invest in affordable housing on the island.

Mr Delaney said he had been working with his investors, the Barclay estate, to solve what he called "one of the biggest problems in Sark".

"We have a couple of schemes we will be putting forward in the not too distant future," he said.

"We're not just talking local market housing but housing for people that come to Sark."

He said the investment would be in the "millions of pounds" but not more than £10m.

Follow BBC Guernsey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].