Image: Savills
Vale Mill in Guernsey, a historic windmill that later served as a Second World War German lookout tower, has been listed for sale at a guide price of £2.95 million. Standing 69 feet (21 metres) tall in the parish of Vale and now renamed The Lookout, the granite building is visible across the island. The planning consent, granted in 2020 for the protected building, covers a six-floor, four-bedroom home with a kitchen and dining area, a utility room and a breakfast room.
Nick Paluch, a director in the residential sales team at Savills Guernsey, said the sale represents a rare opportunity. Ridout also told the BBC that without the listing, further investment was unviable and the building risked falling into disrepair again and possibly being “permanently lost”. He described the views from the top of the tower as “the best in Guernsey”, with the sea visible for miles around.
Planning permission has already been secured to convert it into a striking modern home, making it a rare redevelopment opportunity. The tower stands beside a water-filled quarry, and the sale offers a piece of island heritage and an approved blueprint to bring it back to life. It also includes an observation deck, a terrace, garaging and a substantial basement extension that cantilevers out over the quarry. That extension would be built within the quarry’s rock face and designed to blend with the mill, with large windows opening onto a balcony deck. An underground link beneath the driveway would join it to the tower. A walkway would lead from the main house towards a floating summer house. The top two former German observation levels could become offices or entertaining spaces. He described the mill as a landmark that offers the kind of diversity the island needs to keep attracting new investment, and as a chance for a buyer to create a top-quality home in the spirit of the television series Grand Designs.
