Walk 25 Coastal Path Tennyson Down and the Freshwater Way - 7.5 miles

I had been waiting for a glorious, clear day to set out on my walk along the iconic Tennyson Down from the Needles. Many holidaymakers clearly had the same thought and the road into the Needles Pleasure Park was jammed with visitors. On heading uphill from the car park, I paused to inspect this tacky/retro chic gnome garden.

Looking back from the footpath along the northern edge of Alum Bay affords great views of the coloured cliffs and the pleasure boats drifting in the bay.

It was Cowes Week and I was just too late to catch all but this last big yacht sailing past - so annoying!

The bay can be accessed by chair lift and boat trips around the Needles leave from the jetty.

The verticle strata of the Alum Bay cliffs offer a full sequence from the Upper Cretaceous (142-65 million years ago) Chalk to the Bembridge Limestone of Oligocene age (30 million years old), and many significant fossils have been found here. The Natural England website explains, "The rock sequence provides a complete section from the Reading Clay, which rests unconfortably upon the Chalk, up through the Oldhaven Formation, London Clay, Bracklesham Group, Barton Clay, Barton Sand, Headon Hill Formation and into the Bembridge Limestone Formation...The famous coloured sands of Alum Bay are largely found within the outcrop of the Bracklesham Group in the central part of Alum Bay."

The lighthouse protects shipping from the treacherous rocks and was the first one was founded by Trinity House in 1785, on the clifftop above Scratchell's Bay. Being often hidden in fog, Trinity House designed the current lighthouse on the outer chalk stack and a helipad was added in 1987. The last resident lighthouse keeper left in 1994 when the lighthouse was automated.

The Needles are pointed stacks of a layer of chalk which runs across the island from Culver Cliff to Tennyson Down and then continues under the Solent to Dorset and were once connected to Old Harry Rocks near Swanage.

 

This is the remains of the rocket launch site, when the British Government set out to develop ballistic missiles in the fifties. Prototypes, code-named Black Knight, were designed by Saunders Roe of Cowes and tested here before being shipped to Woomera in Australia. The site was later used for a top secret Space rocket and missile project, with over 2,000 sq ft of control rooms and up to 240 employees working on the development of the space rockets Black Night and Black Arrow.

Leaving the Needles site, the footpath leads up over Tennyson Down (NT), named after the poet who lived at Farringford just below at Freshwater Bay and whose favourite walk this was, saying the air was worth 'sixpence a pint'. The Tennyson Trail begins here and finishes 15 miles to the east at Carisbrooke Castle.

On the top of the hill is the Tennyson Memorial, a granite cross erected after his death in 1862.

Fine view stretch out across to Hurst Castle and the Dorset coast.

The path descends to Freshwater Bay with its crescent of beach and two more chalk stacks.

A few cattle and many rabbits keep the grassland cropped and easy to walk.

The path comes out by Dimbola Lodge the museum devoted to the Victorian pioneer photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.

From here my walk continues north inland along the Freshwater Way cycle track which follows the river Yar. The path and causeway across the river is reached by turning left into Afton Rd then Manor Rd, to come out here at Afton Thatch.

This is a lovely spot near All Saints Church, Freshwater with its memorials to the Tennyson family, and the swans and waterfowl nestling under the bridge.

Most of the pathway is between trees alongside wide reed banks but there are glimpses of the river as we approach Yarmouth.

The area is full of water birds and I caught this heron a way off among the reeds.

Yachts are moored up at the entrance to the river and the car ferry can be seen plying back and forth to Lymington.

The path enters the town by the Old Mill.

Once more I was just too late to catch the big yachts crossing through on their way back to Cowes, but I spotted some stragglers.

Walk Details

Walk Details
Distance: 7.5 miles
Start: Needles Pleasure Park
Finish: Yarmouth Harbour
Time: 4 hours
Bus: Island  Coaster to Alum Bay, No 7 to Newport, No 12 to Freshwater Bay
Refreshments and WC: The Needles Pleasure Park and Old Battery Cafe, Freshwater Bay and Yarmouth.

Walk 20 Coastal Path Alum Bay to Yarmouth - 6.25 miles

On a scorching hot day, I set out from the Needles pleasure park to explore the coastal path from Alum Bay to Yarmouth, taking in some views of the purple heather covered slopes of Headon Warren.

Alum Bay is best known for its coloured sands and has been a popular tourist spot since the 18th century, when the tradition of filling glass bottles began. A pier, one of three originally on this coastal stretch, was built to serve visiting paddle steamers but it was feared it would allow enemy invasion in wartime and fell into disuse before being swept away by storms. In 1973 a chairlift was installed to access the beach, giving access to boat trips that tour the Needles.

On the top of Headon Warren is Hatherwood Battery, built in 1859 as part of the fortifications around the Needles to cover and defend Alum Bay from enemy invasion, protect the Solent from enemy shipping and co-ordinate with the Guns at the Needles Batter. It was to house a range of heavy guns and accommodation for two married soldiers, with the remainder of the garrison quartered at Golden Hill Fort. Now all that remains are four gun emplacements and the site is gradually slipping into the sea.

The area is home to  heather, gorse, grassland, yellowort, gentians, orchids and centauries like these. In July, it is alive with butterflies, including the rare Glanville Fritallary.

Like all the south of the island, Alum Bay is subject to erosion and this landslip opened up in the wet winter of 2013/4.

On top of the far hill the Tennyson Monument can just be spotted.

From the top Headon Warren we look back to Afton Down, the scene of the iconic 1970 Isle of Wight pop festival, when up to 700,000 music lovers descended on the area, more than 10 times the number who attend the current festivals, now held in Newport.

Across the Solent is a vie of Hurst Castle, on long spit of sand just outside Southampton. It was one of Henry VIII's device forts, built to protect Southampton Water from French invasion.

Just around the bay, just outside Yarmouth is Fort Albert, one of Lord Palmerston's defences against Napoleonic invasion of the Needles Passage, now converted to private flats.

Among the heathers and willowherb were also patches of wild honeysuckle.

Heading down into Totland Bay, I passed these spectacular hydrangeas.

Following York Lane and Cliff Road, a path leads down to Totland Bay.

The Waterfront Inn and Totland are renowned for magnificent sunset view, but I've yet to be there with a camera to catch one.

At Pelican Pointe cafe, the coastal path heads up inland to avoid the area of broken sea wall.

Totland Pier has fallen into disrepair and plans for its restoration have stalled among legal and planning concerns.

Following a long spell of rain, the sea wall collapsed after a landslip, closing coastal access, amid much speculation as to possible repair options.

After a short stretch inland, the path descends to the little beach resort of Colwell Bay, with its row of colourful beach huts and beach cafes and shops.

The path heads up inland again passing through Brambles Chine and Cliff End holiday parks, lined with thistles and wild fennel.

This pink shrub is Eupatorium cannabinum, commonly known as Hemp-agrimony, and the butterflies sure liked it.

Coming out on the coast again offered closer views of Hurst Castle.

The path then heads into the woods of Fort Victoria Country Park, but I couldn't find the significance of this carving.

Nestling in the undergrowth were these Arum maculatum or snakehead , a common woodland plant species of the Araceae family, later to become arum lilies.

Leaving the woodland we reach the coastal path, passing Norton Grange to reach Yarmouth Harbour.

Along the sandy shoreline were clumps of sea holly.

Walk Details
Start: Needles Pleasure Park, Alum Bay
End: Yarmouth Harbour
Distance: 6.25miles
Refreshments and WC: Alum Bay, Colwell Bay, Yarmouth
Bus: Island Coaster or route 7 from Ventnor or Newport.