Herm - One of the Channel Islands up for sale

For sale: tiny Channel island. Includes own jail.

One of the eight inhabited Channel islands off the northern coast of France has gone on the market, the estate agency handling the sale said.

Martel Maides, based on the island of Guernsey, said it was looking for a new buyer to take on the 40-year leasehold of Herm, about five kilometres away.

"The island offers a beautiful place to live with a remarkable lifestyle, supported by a thriving tourist-based business," reads a descripton on the firm's website.

"As well as a fine home at the top of the island, and the farmland, hotel, restaurant and tavern that we all know so well, the purchaser will also get a jail, an obelisk and a landing craft."

The island is just 2.4 kilometres long by 800 metres wide. But it includes a manor house, 13th century chapel, what is thought to be the world's smallest jail, farmland, white sandy beaches, pub and restaurants.

There is a hotel with no clocks, televisions or telephones, plus other facilities built up in the last 50 or so years include self-catering cottages, shops, a campsite and housing for 150 people.

There are 50 permanent residents on the island. It is also a tax haven.

Adrian and Pennie Heyworth, who have run the island for the last 28 years, told the Guernsey Post newspaper they have decided to move on for private and family reasons.

"Herm is great, but perhaps having had the Heyworth family for 28 years it's time for a change. Perhaps it needs new ideas," Adrian Heyworth was quoted as saying.

"It needs someone with probably greater wealth than we have to keep pace with the expectations of tourists today."

Britain's Sunday Times said the island could be sold for 15 million pounds ($30.7 million).

The Channel Islands are a British Crown dependency but are run independently and are not part of the United Kingdom. Queen Elizabeth II is head of state and is referred to by Channel islanders as Duke of Normandy.