Isle of Wight Coastal Path: Sandown to Ventnor

Sandown

Sandown is a pleasant seaside town on the eastern coast of the Isle of Wight. It is situated on a sheltered bay and is fronted by a large sandy beach which, when combined with the favourable climate, proved irresistible to Victorian developers. The majority of the town is situated on the high ground behind the cliffs that rise quickly from the beach.

Sandown Pier

Culver Pier, Sandown is one of the few surviving piers on the Isle of Wight. It was built between 1876 and 1879, before alter being extended to its current length of 875 feet. Like many piers it was sectioned in World War II to prevent it being used for an invasion, but was repaired after the war. It has seen the almost-obligatory fire, but has been restored. It currently is home to an amusement arcade and a bowling alley, although pleasure cruises still occasionally leave from the pier head.

Shanklin

The seaside resort of Shanklin is, like its close neighbour Sandown, built on the hills that lie behind the cliffs that front Sandown Bay. A promenade near sea level links it to Sandown, although the coastal path chooses to cling to the clifftops between the two towns. Whilst Sandown came into existence in Victorian times, Shanklin expanded around a small and remote village that nestled in Shanklin Chine. The thatched houses of the Old Village are one of the attractions of the town.

The 1200-foot long Shanklin Pier opened in 1890. Sadly it was comprehensively destroyed in the Great Storm of 1987. During World War II the pier was used as part of the PipeLine Under The Ocean (PLUTO) project, and an oil pipeline was constructed across the channel to Cherbourg. Although much of the pipeline was recovered after the war, a short section can be seen in Shankline Chine. A cliff lift was built to take people from the town to the pier below; this still exists in a modern and brutally ugly form.

Ventnor

Ventnor is a seaside resort built on the seaward flank of St Boniface Down, the highest point on the island. Originally it was a small fishing village that expanded rapidly once the Isle of Wight railway arrived in 1866. Because it is built on a hillside getting around town often involves steep walks. The town’s two railway stations were closed by 1966, although the town has good bus links running down the coast to Ryde and inland to Newport.

The Victorians recognised that the area has a distinct and healthy microclimate, and that led to the construction of the Royal National Hospital for Diseases of the Chest in 1869. It lasted a century before medical advances made such hospitals redundant. It was demolished a few years later, and was replaced with a botanic garden that is open to the public. The coastal path skirts the gardens, and an old furnace is the only obvious sign of the building.

Ventnor does not have a pier, and it is a surprise to find that it once had three. The first two did not last long, but the third, the Royal Victoria Pier, lasted until it was demolished in 1993; it was replaced by a bandstand on the shoreward side.

The Ventnor Undercliffs

The eight miles of coast between Luccombe and St Catherine’s Point, including the town of Ventnor itself, are dominated by historic landslips. These are most prominent to the southwest of the town where the sea cliffs are towered over by much higher cliffs half a mile inland.

A road, Undercliff Drive, leads along part of the Undercliff between Niton and Ventnor. The remaining part stretching west from Niton to Blackgang was swept away in a landslip in the early twentieth century. The slips occur because hard rocks overly a blue clay called Gault, with the strata dipping towards the sea. The clay becomes saturated after heavy rain until it cannot support the mass of rocks above, causing the lot to slump. This process is worsened by the sea eroding the toe of the slope.

The coastal path follows the low cliffs at the very edge of the sea before heading inland through St Lawrence to reach the high cliffs behind.