Sark Emoji & Flag

🇨🇶 is the flag of Sark, a small island in the Channel Islands, east of Guernsey and off the coast of Normandy. Like every country flag emoji it is not one character but two regional indicator letters, 🇨 and 🇶, from CQ, a code that the ISO 3166 country-code standard keeps reserved for Sark. The flag arrived with Emoji 16.0 in 2024, which makes it one of the newest flags on the emoji keyboard, and that is why 🇨🇶 can look unfamiliar and prompt the question of which country it is.

The flag is white with the red cross of St George, and in the upper corner by the pole a red square with two gold lions, the old arms of Normandy. The lions recall that the Channel Islands were part of the Duchy of Normandy, which is why 🦁🦁👑 is the flag's own combo; the islands still toast the monarch as Duke of Normandy.

Phones and computers that have not yet been updated to Emoji 16.0, and Windows, whose emoji font draws no country flags at all, show the two letters CQ instead. A 🇨🇶 sent from such a device still arrives as a flag on an up-to-date phone. Sark is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey 🇬🇬, so 🇨🇶🇬🇬 and 🇬🇬🇨🇶🇯🇪 for the Channel Islands with Jersey are natural pairings.

Sark emoji for the car-free island: 🚫🚗 🚜 🐴 🚲

Cars are not allowed on Sark, so 🚫🚗 is a natural emoji pair for the island. The roads are unpaved lanes, and tractors 🚜 are the island's principal motor vehicles, though licensed agricultural and construction vehicles and medically approved mobility scooters are also allowed. They pull farm carts, building materials, deliveries and the open passenger trailer that carries visitors up Harbour Hill from the boat, known locally as the toast rack. Your bags 🧳 follow the same way. Even the ambulance 🚑 is a trailer pulled by a tractor.

Everyone else travels by horse-drawn carriage 🐴 🐎, by bicycle 🚲 🚴 or on foot 🚶 🥾. Bikes are hired near the top of Harbour Hill, and a carriage ride round the island is the classic first afternoon. The walk everyone takes is La Coupée, the narrow ridge with a road along its top and a drop to the sea on both sides that joins Great Sark to Little Sark; 🚶🌊🪨 is the crossing; bikes 🚲 are pushed across.

Dark Sky Island emoji: 🌌 ✨ 🔭 🔦

In 2011 the International Dark-Sky Association named Sark the world's first Dark Sky Island. With no cars and no public street lighting, the Milky Way 🌌 is plain to see on a clear night, and 🌌✨🇨🇶, 🌠 and ⭐🌙 are what stargazers send home. 🔭 is the telescope of the island's astronomers and visiting stargazing groups.

🔦 belongs to every Sark evening: walking back from a pub or a dinner down dark lanes, islanders and visitors carry a torch, so 🔦🌙🚶 is a very Sark way of saying goodnight.

Sark island emoji for cliffs, wildlife, food and summer days

The island is a plateau with high cliffs and caves all round, about 5 km long. 🌊 🪨 🌅 are the coast walks and sunsets, 🪟 the Window in the Rock, an opening a 19th-century Seigneur had cut through the cliff above Port du Moulin to frame the sea, and 🏊 🐚 the Venus Pool on Little Sark, a natural rock pool that is only reachable at low tide. 🛶 is sea kayaking round the caves, often in the company of seals 🦭; dolphins 🐬 are seen offshore, and seabirds 🐦, including a few puffins, nest on the stacks.

Inland are small fields with sheep 🐑 and cows 🐄, bluebells 🪻 in the woods and valleys in spring, and 🏡 the walled gardens of La Seigneurie, the Seigneur's house, which are open to visitors. 🐑🏇🏁 is a well-known Sark summer event, sheep racing, in which sheep run a little course with toy jockeys on their backs. 🎻 🎸 🪕 🎶 were heard at the Sark Folk Festival, held in summers from 2010 to 2017 and again in 2019.

For food, 🦞 🦀 🐟 🎣 are the lobster, crab and fish landed by island boats; 🫖 ☕ are afternoon cream teas in the tea gardens, 🍫 chocolate handmade on the island, and 🍺 a drink at one of the island's pubs after the last boat has gone.

Sark history in emoji: the 1565 charter, the Seigneur and Chief Pleas

📜 is the charter of 1565, in which Queen Elizabeth I granted Sark to Helier de Carteret of Jersey on condition that he settled it with forty families who would defend it. Each of the forty landholdings, the tenements, had to supply a man with a musket, and the holders of these tenements sat in the island's parliament, Chief Pleas, for more than four centuries. The Seigneur 👑 still holds the island from the Crown.

This arrangement made Sark known as Europe's last feudal state until 2008, when reform replaced the mix of unelected Tenants and elected Deputies with a Chief Pleas of 28 elected Conseillers alongside the Seigneur and Seneschal; the first election under the new system was held that December 🗳️. ⛪ is St Peter's Church, 🎨 📖 the artists and writers the island has drawn: the writer and illustrator Mervyn Peake lived and painted on Sark and set his novel Mr Pye there. During the Second World War Sark was occupied by German forces from 1940 to 1945, and the Dame of Sark, Sibyl Hathaway, stayed on the island throughout.

⛴️ ⚓ are how you arrive: there is no airport, and the ferry from St Peter Port in Guernsey takes under an hour to reach Maseline Harbour. ⛵ 🛥️ are the yachts that anchor in Sark's bays in summer.

Sark currency and letters: £ and Sercquiais

Sark uses the pound: Guernsey pound notes and coins, equal in value to sterling, circulate alongside Bank of England and Jersey money, all written £ (code GBP); 💷 is the banknote emoji and 🪙 the coin. To type £, press Shift + 3 on a UK keyboard, Option + 3 on a US Mac, Alt + 0163 on Windows with the number pad, or write £ in HTML.

Of about 500 people on the island (a CLDR estimate), nearly all speak English, which needs no special letters. Sark also has its own language, Sercquiais or Sarkese, a form of Norman French brought by the Jersey families who settled the island in 1565; it is now spoken by only a handful of people. Neighbouring collections are Guernsey, Jersey, United Kingdom and France, and English for the language.