Shorwell and Chillerton Down

Off for another stomp on a glorious autumn afternoon. We drove along Middle Road to Shorwell and parked near St Peter's Church, changed into our boots and headed to the footpath behind the church. This led past some pleasant houses, and a glorious patch of fungus, and uphill towards the downs. The path led gradually upwards towards Chillerton TV mast, with a steep climb at the end past a disused chalk pit.

Once we reached the fenced off TV mast we hit a problem; we followed the perimeter to the left and came to a barbed wire fence where the path appeared to plunge down the side of the chalk pit. Very steep, so no thank you! There didn't appear to be a way through, even though the map showed a footpath, so we turned round and followed the fence to the other side of the TV mast. This at least gave us some beautiful views of the surrounding downs and coast, and the village of Chillerton, bathed by the light of the late afternoon sun. Gorgeous.

However, when we got to the other end of the fence we could see the path over another never-ending barbed wire fence. Hmm. No way through seemingly, so, I'm not sorry to say, we hopped over a 'No entry' gate and high-tailed it for 100 yards until we found a gate onto the footpath. We were a right pair of nervous Nellies, quite concerned somebody would come out and shout at us, but they didn't, thankfully! Once home I looked at the route online and realised that if we hadn't cut up past the chalk pit the path would have led to where we wanted to be. Nice to know our map reading skills aren't improving...

When back on the path it was a straightforward walk back along a couple of tracks and through a field to Shorwell village and the car. Another nice drive along Middle Road, with a glimpse of this months super moon towards the end. Perfect!

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4438517.html

Distance: 4 miles

Fungus

Lovely landscape

More lovely landscape

St Peter's Church

Shorwell

Another glorious spring day on the Isle of Wight, so me and the teenager jumped in the car and drove to Shorwell, parking in the lane next to the village hall. We proceeded along Russell Road and at the end turned into a field and walked gently uphill towards Wolverton Manor, passing a paddock of brown and white sheep with horns. When we reached the road, we turned into the driveway of the manor and walked down it, through a gate at the end, across a bridge over a stream and into a small, damp copse. This was full of emerging irises, and celandines in full bloom. We walked along a dilapidated wooden walkway until we emerged in another field and followed the pathway across two fields (quite soggy) and over a couple of dilapidated stiles until we got to the main road near West Court. 

Crossing over, we walked along until we found the bridleway leading up on to Limerstone Down. At the top were glorious views along the west coast as far as Blackgang, and also views across the downland to left and right.  The path continued on through woodland bursting with wild garlic and came out on a lane bordering Northcourt, a manor house in Shorwell. Just before the end of the lane the path turned left and led steeply uphill past a wooden footbridge crossing Shorwell Shute; we had to pause and walk over the bridge and back as I had driven under it many times, but never walked on it! Back on the footpath we walked through more garlic laden woodland, bordering an old quarry named The Dell, which was a dappled haven of wildflowers. The path led on uphill, emerging onto a farm track next to the main Newport road; here we found a decomposing badger, and crossed the road onto a bridleway leading along the edge of a field and wood before coming to a gate. This led into a field of shorn sheep and gamboling lambs, then into another field and eventually coming back to Shorwell village. We stopped briefly on a bench next to a white flowered cherry tree in full bloom, bought a drink and an ice  cream each from the post office (cheaper in total than one ice cream from St Helens yesterday!), and made our way back to the car. Lovely walk!

Instead of going straight home we drove through the back lanes towards Yafford, which were one car wide so it was lucky nothing came the other way, before meeting the military road at Atherfield and driving to Freshwater and Yarmouth. The gorse bushes on the downs above Compton Bay were in full golden bloom and gorgeous to look at. We stopped off at Shalfleet, parking in the car park up the lane behind the pub, and walked up to the old quay and back, before finally heading home.

Wolverton Manor

Wolverton Sheep

Wildflowers

Distance: 3.5 miles

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4058603.html

Footpaths: SW4, SW5, SW3, SW6, SW7, SW49, S12