Les Platons, Summit in Trinity, Jersey

Les Platons is the highest point on the island of Jersey, rising about 136 meters (446 feet) above sea level. Located in Trinity parish, the hill features gentle slopes leading to its summit, where radio transmitters and a radar station sit among open grassland and scattered rocks.

Les Platons was used from Monday 3 October 1955 for a BBC Television transmitter on the VHF 405-line service, channel 4, giving the Channel Islands their first television; before then the islands took BBC national radio on AM from mainland England. FM broadcasts of the Home, Light and Third Programmes began on 16 October 1961. In March 1992 frequencies were rearranged: Radio 2 moved to 89.6, Radio 3 to 91.1 and Radio 4 to 94.8, freeing 97.1 for Radio 1. Television transmissions ended in 1985, after which the site has been a radio transmitter only.

The name comes from Jèrriais French for the flat-topped summit. The site's role in island life is broadcasting: from 3 October 1955 it carried BBC Television on VHF channel 4 to the Channel Islands, which had no transmitters before, and FM radio followed from 16 October 1961.

Les Platons lies in the Vingtaine de la Ville-à-l'Évêque, Trinity parish, reached by minor roads climbing from the north of Jersey. The masts and radar station stand on the crest beside a white house, so the summit is a working radio site rather than an open viewing point. Fremont Point transmitter is about 2 km west.

Les Platons stopped carrying television in 1985, when the UK ended its VHF 405-line service; since then the site has been a radio transmitter only. The two pale grey lattice masts on the hilltop, each capped by a small vertical spike, are the visible sign of that role, with a white house on the same ridge to their right.