Denis Island is named after a French explorer, Denis de Trobriant, who first sighted her from the vessel L’Etoile on 12 August, 1773, although the early Arab seafarers who were plying their trade in the Indian Ocean from as early as the 9th century would almost certainly have come across the island at a far earlier date. The same can undoubtedly be said of the pirates who haunted the area during the 17th and 18th centuries.

De Trobriant, who landed on the fertile island, found it to be a haven for a diverse assortment of birds as well as turtles and possibly even sea cows or, at least, seals. In his log he mentions that, in the name of the King of France, he buried a bottle containing the Act of Possession that, to this day, has never been found.

As Mahé became settled, it so happened that several of her satellite islands, including Denis, became inhabited in turn by early French settlers who introduced various crops, including sugar.

From the 1850’s onwards, copra, the dried flesh of the coconut, became an important export for Seychelles and a plantation of coconut trees was duly planted on the island which also had many of its guano deposits excavated.

The year 1881 saw the building of a 70 ft lighthouse on Denis that still stands today on its imposing metal tripod as a reminder of the hazard to shipping the island once posed. In 1908 there followed the construction of the only ecumenical chapel in the archipelago.

Having changed owners several times over the years, in 1975, Denis was purchased by Mr. Pierre Burkhardt, a French industrialist, who opened the island to tourism in December of 1977.

In 1999 Mr. Michael and Mrs. Kathleen Mason acquired the island and, today, continue the island’s tradition of offering the finest hospitality in the most stunning natural surrounds.