Walk 4 Ventnor to the Buddle Inn Niton - 4.5 miles

This is another regular walk, which takes me 2 hours door to door, if I don't stop for photos. The route takes the cliff top path above the Undercliff from Ventnor to Niton, and since the recent landslip on Undercliff Drive has closed the road, this is a more practical route than trying to follow the coastal path at beach level.

I started at the top of the town, by the old station, now the Ventnor Industrial Estate and followed the road to the top of the hill, turning left by the fish and chip shop and then right along the Whitwell Rd.

Then it's pretty much a straight route which follows the road until it bears right inland. It's a street of attractive houses with well tended gardens backed against the hills of the downs.

Keep to the top path along the aptly named Paradise Walk towards Niton, ignoring paths downhill.

 This week in April the hedgerows were white with blackthorn bushes. They look like May, or hawthorn bushes but come out earlier; you can tell which is which as blackthorn flowers before its leaves come out and hawthorn does the reverse.

I also passed lots of these patches of bluebells, or to be more accurate, white and pinkbells, which are apparently the Spanish variety, with flowers on both side of the stems.

Drop down and cross St Lawrence Shute, taking the steps up into the next field, bearing left to follow the coast. The path soon opens out along the cliff top beyond the botanic gardens and looking down on the village of St Lawerence. Today was hazy, so I added these two images I took last year on a clearer day to give an idea how fine the views can be.

The parish church of St Lawrence can be seen through the trees. It' s worth a visit if passing along Seven Sisters Rd any time as it contains three pre-Raphaelite stained glass windows, two by William Morris and one by Ford Madox Brown, which came from the chapel of the Royal National Hospital in Ventnor.

A nature reserve revealed this field of primroses.

A bench sits at the junction where the Pilgrim Path descends to St Lawrence. The path linked St Lawrence and  Niton with the White Well at Whitwell, where this sign can be seen.

Near a bench with a fine view, we come across this sign, which explains the geology of the Undercliff. This sheltered, south-facing strip of land is some 5 miles long, created by ancient landslips. Wikipedia defines it as " a landslide complex in Cretaceous soft rocks, a bench of slipped clays and sands above a low sea-cliff, backed by higher (100 metres) Upper Greensand and Chalk cliffs". 

This handy map marks the junction, where path 27, the Cripple Path, leads to the right across fields and into Niton village, while the 29 and 30 continue to the Buddle Inn by the coast.

The path ends in steps down to the road, on which turn left along Sandrock Rd to reach the Buddle Inn. This gorgeous camellia was in full flower in a front garden.

 This row of cottages at the end of the road leads down to St Catherine's Lighthouse.

My destination was the 16th century Buddle Inn, an attractive stone built cottage, which has been an inn since at least 1850, when it had it's first licence. Hidden away in the depths of the Undercliff, it was a known haunt of smugglers and wreckers, who would bring up their booty when the revenue men were away. Tales are told of people seeing the ghosts of smugglers, sailors and customs men walking through the bar, but none has ever disturbed my ploughman's lunch!

Full walk details

Walk Details
Start: The old station, Mitchell Ave, Ventnor
Finish: The Buddle Inn
Distance: 4.5 miles
Time: 2 hours
Refreshments: Buddle Inn
WC: Buddle Inn
Bus: No 6, hourly from Niton village, 2 hourly from the Buddle Inn