Mont Orgueil (French for 'Mount Pride') is a castle in Jersey that overlooks the harbour of Gorey; a port on the east coast of the Island.

[2] 1970s excavations found that the site had been fortified during the Iron Age, with an earth rampart at the top of the granite rock, that the castle is built on.

These promontory forts are found all across the north of Jersey, as they utilised the natural defensiveness of high cliffs to offer a refuge from raiders.

The castle was finally taken by a French force in May 1461, in a plot hatched by Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI of England, and her cousin of Pierre de Brézé, the Seneschal of Normandy.

[6] Despite De Brézé's rapid fall into disgrace and imprisonment later that year with the ascension of Louis XI,[5] the French maintained control of Jersey until it was retaken by a combined English-Jerseyman force led by the Yorkist admiral, Richard Harliston in early 1468.

Cornish complained that earlier repairs to the donjon by Robert Raymont had left it so weak it was vulnerable to musket shot; "lyke a nadyl eye scarse abyll to byde a hagboshe."

Walter Raleigh, Governor of Jersey in 1600, rejected a plan to demolish the old castle[8] to recycle the stone for the new fortifications, claiming that "'twere pity to cast it down".

The regicides Thomas Waite, Henry Smith, James Temple, Hardress Waller, and Gilbert Millington were also transferred to Mont Orgueil in 1661.

Colonel Heane landed with 3,000 men (comprising his own regiment), six companies of Sir Hardress Waller's foot and two troops of horse.

Faced with the prospect of a siege by a competent military force, the fortress of Mont Orgueil surrendered with generous terms allowing those inside to go to Elizabeth Castle.

[4] The castle was given over to a British naval officer, Philippe d'Auvergne, who was tasked with heading a spy network called 'La Correspondance', which was designed to destabilise the French Revolutionary government in Brittany and Normandy.

Until the second half of the 19th century, the castle was open to the public on one day a year, Easter Monday, and crowds used to flock from all over the island.

Initially a small picket was installed on the top of the Keep and the Gardien of the castle, Captain Joe Dorey, was allowed to stay in his cottage in the Lower Ward.

This included elements of the Army Coastal Artillery Regiment 1265, who manned the three observation towers at the top of the Keep, and a small detachment of German Infantry.