Whitwell and Stenbury

Another Sunday afternoon stroll on our beautiful Island. This time we headed south to Whitwell and parked near the church, and followed the route suggested by Isle of Wight Ramblers route 'Whitwell, Stenbury' in their 'Twelve more favourite walks' booklet.

The route led us up the main road past the church and rectory, then turned left down a broad footpath between houses. On the side of the footpath was an old water hydrant, installed in the village in the 1800s, and the 'White Well' which the village is apparently named after. This used to be a place of pilgrimage for the healing water's of the well, dedicated to 'Our Lady of Whitwell and St Rhadegund'.

The path led on down to a stream and then across a field to a metal gate. Apparently the old railway line led through here, but there was nothing obvious to suggest this (we looked hard!). The path continued upwards towards Nettlecombe, a hamlet that is all that remains of a medieval village, and past three large ponds on the way. Nettlecombe looked lovely - a small community nestled in a valley with countryside to die for. It was the best venue for sledging that I have ever seen! The pathway continued uphill, via NT3 and NT119, onto Stenbury Down. The views across the Island were magnificent; we could see all the way up to Tennyson Down and down the coast to Blackgang then round the southern end of the Island. Turning the other way we could see the Solent. In between all of this was beautiful, rolling countryside with fields as far as the eye could see, and spring flowers in every verge and hedgerow.  Glorious.

We followed the path to Week Farm, crossed the farmyard and continued on up the hill towards metal towers that overlooked Wroxall, and where the path joined with the route to Gat Cliff and Appuldurcombe.  At this point we turned left and plunged steeply downhill towards Newbarn Farm, said hello to the farmer as we crossed the farmyard, and followed a path past sheep paddocks. Here we saw a newly born lamb, still wet and bloody, lying near its mother and the placenta. Strangely cute! There were lots of lambs here, of varying ages, gambolling happily around the fields. We saw a couple feeding and their little tails were waggling with joy! The country here seemed ageless, and we could well imagine that not much had changed for several centuries and almost expected Mr Darcy to come galloping over the hill. He didn't, sadly. We passed moss-covered, crumbling, dry stone walls, and tripped along an uneven pathway towards Stenbury Manor and passed between this building and the farm outbuildings. The manor appeared shut up, with shutters at every window, but that could just have been to keep out the prying eyes of passing walkers.

After the manor the path returned to Nettlecombe, over a series of stiles and past more happy lambs, and eventually rejoined the well path and back to Whitwell. We decided we needed a cup of tea so drove to The Buddle Inn in nearby Niton to get one. We also ordered cheesecake which turned out to be rather more expensive than we anticipated, but was suitably yummy.

This was a delightful walk, not too muddy, and steep in places, with lovely wildlife. We saw flowering gorse, blackthorn blossom, cowslips, primroses, stitchwort, bugle, bluebells, rabbits, horses, cock pheasants in full spring glory, hen pheasants, alpacas, cattle, sheep and lambs.

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4302624.html

Distance: 4.5miles

Pathways: NT3, NT119, NT9, V62

Bluebells

Rolling countryside

Wind-blasted trees

Stenbury Manor