The island's area is , making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick. It is around to the west of the La Hague on the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, in France, to the northeast of Guernsey and from the south coast of Great Britain. It is the closest of the Channel Islands to France and to the United Kingdom. It is separated from Cap de la Hague by the dangerous Alderney Race (French: "Raz Blanchard").