Blackgang to Hoy Monument

First walk of the autumn today, in glorious sunshine and a stiff breeze. We parked at the Blackgang Viewpoint carpark, above Blackgang Chine theme park, and crossed over the road to steps leading to a field. The path led through a herd of cows, pastel coloured and seemingly kindly, and then upwards towards St Catherine's Oratory, or The Pepperpot as it is known locally. This stone tower was built in the early 1300s, apparently as a penance by a local landowner who stole wine from a shipwreck. It was originally a chapel with a beacon for shipping, but all that remains is the tower. Next to the oratory is a bronze age barrow, excavated, and further along is the 'Salt Pot', which is the stone circular base of an eighteenth century lighthouse that was never completed. We paused on the way up to watch what we thought was a kestrel, hovering above its prey, swooping to catch it, then sailing back up into the sky and swooping effortlessly along the ridge in the breeze. Beautiful.

We continued, through a field of skittish and distinctly less friendly cattle, down a steep slope past what may have been ancient agriculture (hill with lots of mini terraces), then through a gate into National Trust land and a well maintained path that led along the ridge of St Catherine's Down to the Hoy Monument. This was a very pleasant stroll, with glorious views across the Island to either side in the golden autumnal sunshine. The Hoy Monument is huge, and was erected to commemorate a visit to Great Britain by the Tsar of Russia. I don't think he made it to the Island! There is also a commemorative plaque for the troops that died at Sevastopol. Strange place to put it. We continued past the monument to a dead end, then retraced our steps to a side path and descended through woodland to pick up a path at the base of the ridge.

This path led along the edge of the wood and gradually took us back up the hill to the edge of the National Trust land. Wanting to avoid the cattle, we took a path that skirted the base of the ridged hill, only to find the cattle had moved and were ahead of us, so, wimps that we were, we retraced our steps and climbed back up the hill (on the other side of the fence!) to the trig point and the pepperpot. It was extremely windy at this point and we were glad not to have small children with us. We paused inside the pepperpot (no wind here) then plunged back down the hill towards the car park. We felt we had earned refreshment so we each bought an ice-cream from the van in the car park, and wandered along the cliff path to look down on Blackgang Chine. To finish the trip, we blasted up the Military Road to Freshwater Bay before returning home. Gorgeous afternoon!

Route (roughly): http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4412779.html

Distance: 3.6 miles

View along the West coast from the Pepperpot.

Chale mackerel

Ridged hill

Hoy Monument

Maple tree

Wight landscape

St Catherine's Oratory

Arreton

After a lazy summer my hiking buddy and I decided to get back out into the countryside again today. We drove up to Robin Hill to drop her family at Bestival (after we'd driven back to collect the tickets), then pootled down the road to Arreton Barns. We had no map, obviously, but thought we remembered the route of a nice walk. We were mostly right.

We walked through the barns site, past the duckpond and St George's church, and came out on the main road. Here we crossed over the road and entered a cabbage field. We walked all the way up the track to find a wire fence with no way through, so retraced our steps to find a path through the cabbages on our right. This also led to a fence, but we were able to hop over it to an obvious path on the other side. This led in due course over a couple of stiles and brought us onto the main Newport to Sandown cycle path. We headed towards Sandown, and shortly after found a path on our left leading to Haseley Manor; this mostly consisted of boardwalks as the path was rather muddy, and came out right next to the Manor House. Last time we were here the path was closed so it was nice to see the work that had been done.

From Haseley, we walked away from the road, past the outbuildings, and towards the downs. The path led us to a lake, rather low on water after the summer sunshine, and we walked round it, scaring the waterfowl, until we met back up with the main path. From here we continued up the hill on a farm track thinking that if we got to the top we would be able to get a glimpse of Bestival. However. It was a hot day, we were tired and unfit, so when we got to a gateway by the woods we sat down and talked ourselves out of it. Turns out we wouldn't have seen anything anyway! Back down the hill to the lake, turned right and followed the path back to Arreton Barns. Here we made a few purchases at Farmer Jacks farm shop and then had a drink on the terrace at the Dairyman's Daughter, and listened to a trio of musicians who were jolly good. Lovely afternoon!

Hasely Manor

Teasels

View from the gate

St George

Arreton Church