Brighstone 2019

Well, we were invited back to Brighstone to house - dog - and - cat sit and leapt at the chance. The weather started off cool and damp but we had some nice walks with the dog. Our first was from the National Trust car park at the top of Lynch Lane, up the downs as far as we could until the path started dipping back down towards Brooke. We turned back then as I had a nettle sting under the strap of my sandal. And there was a big hill to walk back up. During the afternoon we had to go to Newport, so we took the dog, let her scare off all the cats in my garden, then went to Carisbrooke Castle and walked twice around the moat, watching teenagers struggling to jump off walls. We didn't laugh, honest. In the evening we strolled  along Coombe Lane, up the green footpath and then back along another which was somewhat overgrown and nettley, and back to the cottage.

On Monday we drove to Chilton Chine and had a lovely walk along the beach throwing the ball for Rosie, as far as Grange Chine, and then strolled back in the driving drizzle picking up litter on the way. We got a reasonable amount. After lunch we left the dog at the cottage and went to Mottistone Manor gardens; I had never been before as I always got the day it opened wrong. The gardens were much larger than they appeared from the road, and had many well planted herbaceous borders and mature trees, with a particularly spectacular Mulberry tree. I hadn't seen one before, and it was covered in fruit. There was also a lovely specimen of a weeping lime tree, absolutely humming with bees in its canopy. We finished with a look at the plant stall (I bought one, oops), a cup of tea and a cake in the tea garden, and a look around the 'shack'; this was a wooden building raised on staddle stones and laid out rather like a boat cabin, with high level bunks, two large desks, a kitchen area and bathroom. It was used as an architects office by the owner in the 1930s. I want one! In the evening we went for another walk with the dog along Coombe Lane, up to the top of the down, across a sheep field and down a gully into a sunken lane and back into Moortown Lane in Brighstone, and then home. Lovely, except for the biting flies.

Tuesday was hot. After breakfast we took Rosie for a walk in the shade of Brighstone Forest, which was lovely and cool and had lots of interesting smells. We came to a crossroads and started walking on, but Rosie picked her ball up, turned around and trotted off in the direction we had come from so we gave up and followed her back to the car! One determined pooch!

The rest of the week followed a similar theme with walks on the downs and the beach. I did a lot of paddling. We had lunch one day at the Piano cafe in Freshwater (lovely open steak sandwich), and also went and explored Ventnor on the opening day of Ventnor Fringe festival. We had lunch at a little Italian restaurant on the seafront, then mooched around the town, ending with delicious ice creams from Crave, a visit to the book bus and a look at The Shed, which had an exhibition about Greenham Common, and sold handmade pottery.

We had a lovely week exploring the countryside and chilling out. We saw lots of fauna, including woodpeckers, coal tits, red squirrels, lots of butterflies, dragonflies, newts, toads, pigeons, herring gulls, buzzards, kestrels, and water boatmen to name a few. This truly is a magical Island.

Sundown at Chilton Chine

Brighstone

Well, we have had weeks of unending sunshine so today my friend and I decided to go for a walk. It thundered and rained. Of course. However, the thunder was exciting and the rain refreshing so all was good. 

We started off in Lynch Lane and headed for the footpath to Moortown (I think that's right; on the right as you head downhill past Coombe Lane), and followed it towards and round Gaggerhill Farm, where we observed some noisy dogs and beautiful horses. The rain started just as we turned into the lane next to the house and we dodged right to a footpath that took us uphill under the trees towards Grammar's Common. This turned out to be a private ("This is not common land") woodland and red squirrel sanctuary, but the footpath went through and we enjoyed the peace and stillness within. At one point we heard a woodpecker and managed to track the noise to three possible trees but could not see the bird itself. Fun looking for it though!

The path led on, out of the woods and down to Strawberry Lane. Here we turned right and picked up a footpath that led to the Long Stone, alongside Castle Hill. We paused in the rain to admire the Long Stone, then detoured to the left and up to the top of Castle Hill to admire the view. One of my favourites, showing the coast from Blackgang Chine to Tennyson Down, even on a cloudy, hazy day like today. We then doubled back and followed the path down through the woods to come out by Mottistone Manor. The manor was not open to the public today, so we crossed the road and prowled around the churchyard, which is a thriving haven for wildlife, and had a look inside the church itself. This is a rather lovely example of a small, country church, and had an interesting display about 'Warrior', the horse that inspired the novel "Warhorse", as he belonged to local landowners. 

We had run out of footpath so we followed the road back to Brighstone in search of a cup of tea, only to find that the once famous cream tea shops had disappeared, so we had a cuppa in the Three Bishops pub instead, and bought an ice cream from the village shop. And a Belgian bun. Oops. We did have a slight detour on the way, having seen a signpost that said village centre half a mile; we followed it over a stream (played Pooh sticks on the bridge), and came out on a housing estate with no indication of where to go, so we retraced our footsteps to the main road. After tea, we decided to head back to Lynch Lane, and found another footpath that led over the downs and through a sheep field to Coombe Lane, which we followed passing several stone cottages until we were back in Lynch Lane. Lovely walk!

Route: https://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4782839.html 

Distance: 6 miles

Pot Bellied Pig

Unusual clouds before thunder storm

Long Stone

Ordnance Survey Bench Mark on Mottistone Church wall

Brighstone stream

Carisbrooke to Shorwell

Today was not the most salubrious of days for walking, being wet with the threat of thunderstorms. However, my friend and I set off optimistically, thinking that the weather would improve. Hmmm. Anyway, we parked in the car park behind Carisbrooke Castle near St Dominic's Priory, and strolled along the road to Froglands Lane. From here we walked up Dark Lane (one of my favourites), and picked up the Shepherd's Trail. We followed this trail for several miles, with the intention of ending up at Brighstone, but as ever with me, we got a bit lost.

 

The trail went through fields, along country lanes, past farm houses and manor houses, as well as going up and down a fair amount. The countryside looked scrumptious, glowing all shades of green on this warm, damp day, and with sudden bursts of wildflowers along the way. There were a lot of poppies. Gorgeous.

 

Delightful as this was, the grass and wildflowers were long and soggy, so before long we were similarly soggy (we forgot to bring waterproof trousers) and the walk turned into a squelch. We came eventually to a farmstead which had a paddock of unusual sheep - some were horned Jacob sheep- and followed the path past it to a crossroads. Our directions were a bit vague here, so we hoped for the best and followed a path that appeared to be going in the right direction. Bad plan. It led to a meadow of long, wet grass and thistles, with a plantation of native trees and shrubs, but no apparent pathway onwards. We followed the field round, found a footpath with no signage, so followed it to the top of the hill only to find we were back at the farm with the beautiful sheep! As we were really rather damp by now we decided to head back to the road, and followed it to Shorwell and the lovely pub, The Crown.

Once indoors we got hot coffee and a sandwich (yum), and I removed my socks and boots as they were sodden. We dried out a bit, then caught the bus back to Carisbrooke High Street, walked along Castle Lane past the ford, and up to the castle itself, around the moat and along another footpath and back to the car. We were going to have a brew at the Priory tea rooms but they are closed on Thursdays.

 

Another lovely walk, which was nice in the rain, but would be amazing in the sunshine.  

 

Distance (main walk): c. 7.5 miles

 

Intended Route: https://www.visitisleofwight.co.uk/dbimgs/13.Shepherds%20Trail.pdf 

 

 

Blackgang to Whale Chine

Quick walk today as the weather was looking dodgy. We parked at Blackgang Chine viewpoint car park (further up the hill from the theme park, and free), and followed the coastal path onwards Chale.  The path appeared fairly well used, but had nettles growing abundantly alongside it, so longer trousers than mine are to be recommended! And boots rather than hiking sandals. However, not too many stings and they wore off quickly. The path opened onto a field, the overflow car park for Blackgang Chine, led across it and back to the road. We followed the road downhill, over the traffic island, and rejoined the footpath on the left that led to the village. The footpath followed the road again, past the ancient St Andrew's church at Chale, and then turned left at the showground and headed towards the cliffs.

We continued along the cliff edge, admiring the dramatic scenery while also wondering whether we would inadvertently end up on the beach in a cliff fall as there appeared to be rather a lot of large cracks in the ground! The path ended abruptly at a large mound and turned inland over a make shift bridge, then back along the coast past a building that might have been a gun emplacement at one time. Hard to tell! The weather was in turns very blustery and then dead calm, which was odd as there weren't major changes in the landscape or the wind. It felt as though we would take off occasionally, and we laid flat on the ground to have a good look at a small chine (we saw two, Ladder Chine and Walpen Chine), without being blown over the edge! Once we reached, and had a good look at, Whale Chine, we turned back and followed the road until we got back to Chale. This was fairly uneventful, and we saw three beautiful alpacas along the way near the small, thatched Walpen Manor house.

Once we reached the car, the weather changed to wet and windy, so we decided a cup of tea was in order and headed to Isle of Wight Pearl, had a look at the jewellery, and had a cuppa and a bowl of homemade tomato soup to warm our cockles! Lush!

Route: https://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4585224.html
Distance: 4.3 miles

Ladder Chine or Walpen Chine

Landslip with scout signs

Alpacas near Chale

St Andrew's Church, Chale

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

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

Mottistone to the Sea

I dragged the teenager into daylight and headed for the West Wight today. We parked at the National Trust car park at Mottistone Manor, then followed their suggested route towards the coast. This led through the churchyard down a short lane, over a stile and onto a footpath. This was slightly squishy in places, but had a stream to the right, and plenty of herbage; the nettles were growing, and cow parsley was coming into bud, and all the hedgerow plants were greening up. We followed a pair of mallards to a wild meadow, where they took to a small pond, and we continued onwards.

The path turned right at a junction, bordered by a laid hedge to the left, and we headed onwards to walk along the edge of another stream and a small woodland. This latter was very pretty in the dappled sunlight, with the deciduous trees putting out leaves, and masses of cow parsley on the path. We could hear the songbirds warbling in the trees and hedgerows and noticed a few bees and bumblebees buzzing among the early wildflowers. The path crossed a small bridge and another stile into a rather soggy meadow, coming out after a little while onto the military road.

We turned right, passed two cottages, then crossed over the road to follow a permissive path through fields to the cliff edge at Sudmoor Point, and picking up the coastal path. There was a glorious view here all along the coast from Blackgang to Tennyson Down, and looking down over the landslip we could see that the tide was far out and that the rocky reef was exposed. Unfortunately there was no access to the beach as far as I could see, so we didn't get closer. The teenager was tired so that was probably a good thing! We followed the coastal path for a while until we met a footpath going inland, and followed this back to the military road, and then crossed over and picked up the final path back to Mottistone. This was a lovely farm track between high hedges, secluded from the breeze and warm in the spring sunshine, and led us back to the church and then the car park.

As the teenager had made it all the way round, I rewarded her (and me, obviously) with an ice cream from the van at Compton Bay before driving home along lots of country lanes, avoiding many suicidal pigeons and a pheasant.

Route: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mottistone-estate/trails/a-mottistone-meander-south-to-the-sea-walk-2

Distance: 2.8 miles

Footpaths: BS74, Coastal Path, BS75, BS100

Mottistone Church

Woodland Stream

View from the coastal path towards Freshwater

Chale Green and the Hoy Monument

Proper walking today, on an overcast afternoon. I joined my friend and her two sons for a circular walk from Chale Green, following a route in one of Isle of Wight Rambler's Association's books. We parked in a layby on the main road, crossed over the road onto a patch of grass then over a footbridge and up a muddy track. The mud came and went, but the hill continued, rising almost 400ft in the first mile. We passed through a lovely little wood full of hazel bushes and carpeted with bluebell foliage where the boys had fun looking for sticks. We found a couple of concrete seats modelled on ripe fungus which we all tried out, and found to be surprisingly comfortable!

The track continued steeply up, coming out into fields before plunging back into woodland again. We came to a junction and followed the left hand path up an extremely muddy path which led to the crest of St Catherine's Down and the Hoy Monument. The monument was huge, which was to be expected as it could be seen for miles around. It was erected by a merchant to commemorate a visit to the UK by Tsar Alexander, and later had a tablet added commemorating soldiers who died at the Battle of Sevastapol. More information can be found on the National Trust page.

After we had had a brief rest and refreshments we continued, heading back to the main path and taking the other fork. This was also muddy, and led through fields and woodland bordering the down, bringing us eventually to the road. We crossed over and followed a footpath through a field, along a ditch boundary with a stream, before coming to a small sheep farm. As we approached, the farmer came out with a big smile, and asked the children if they would like to see some new born lambs. They did, as did both adults, so we followed her to the barn and were introduced to a ewe and two 12-hour old lambs. We then got to cuddle a baby baa lamb! Eldest boy declined, and youngest boy was a bit small, but both adults were straight in there after assuring the farmer that neither of us were pregnant! What fun!

The walk continued; after we left the farm driveway, the path turned steeply right and then even more steeply uphill, coming out on a broad green pathway high above the surrounding farmland. We found an unusual memorial that looked rather like a prone barrel, and which was covered in inscriptions of dates and names. Curious. Once home I did a little searching and am reasonably sure it was a commemoration of shipwrecks off the west coast of the Island. The path soon descended again, and led across the lawn of Pyle Manor then into Windmill Copse, another pleasant patch of woodland. This led past a deer park, where we watched a herd of deer watching us. They were well camouflaged against the hill.

Further on, the path led through a swampy section of woodland, with a rickety boardwalk to walk on. This was fine until the very end where the boardwalk suddenly ran out, so we hopped across the last few feet on semi-sunken branches and logs.  The path led back uphill (not steep) and across a few fields until we returned to Chale Green, muddy, tired and happy.

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4284746.html
Distance: 4.5 miles
Footpaths: C1, C37, GL60, C3, C5, C4, C21, C22, C23, C33

Mushroom Chairs

Hoy Monument

View to the West Coast

Baa Lamb

Shipwreck Memorial

Primroses

Swamp path

Niton, Whitwell and Bierley

Time to start training for this year's  'Walk the Wight', so we headed off to Niton full of confidence in our route-finding abilities. Oops. Once we got to Niton (easy) and parked (also easy), we headed confidently off only to realise after five minutes that we had gone in the wrong direction. We retraced our steps, consulted the map as well as the walking guide, and found a footpath that was heading in the right direction. We also found a friendly local who reassured us that we were indeed heading the right way. Phew!

We followed the path past the primary school, along Allotment Road, and into a muddy field, and squelched up the track towards Whitwell. We passed the cottage mentioned in the book and whooped with happiness! The rest of the walk went to plan, and involved several extremely squelchy footpaths and bridleways, and a walk through a quiet woodland on the downs with many elderly trees. One footpath was bordered with bracken and was soft underfoot with dead bracken leaves. Lovely.  The views over the countryside of this part of the Island were lovely, and would have been spectacular on a sunny day, rather than a damp and drizzly Sunday afternoon in January.

Points of interest included the rather ancient and lovely churches of Niton and Whitwell, and the unexpected delight of Stockbridge Manor and its Alpacas.

Distance: 4 miles
Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4229021.html

Whitwell Church

Whitwell Church

View from the Downs

Bouldner and Thorley

Nice walk today, with no planning. We parked at Bouldner carpark again (I love a free car park), followed the promenade to Yarmouth, walked through the town and then headed across the green to find the footpath by the River Yar. We followed the path along the side of the river for a while, past the Mill House and the turning to the End of the Line Café, then went through a gate to follow a path towards Mill Copse. We paused and picked blackberries.

Neither of us had been to Mill Copse before; it was a small woodland planted with a variety of trees including Californian Redwoods, and was very peaceful. We found wayfaring marks on the ground, presumably left by Scouts, and followed them through a gate, across a field and eventually to a road.

After a while we found a footpath on the right leading to the ruins of a small church and graveyard next to Thorley Manor. Lovely and unexpected. We turned back as it was a dead end, retraced our steps along the road, found the next footpath and followed it until we got to the Thorley Road. We followed that back to the main road to Yarmouth and found the car.

We foraged along the way and returned home with a full tub of blackberries and pockets full of conkers! A lovely autumnal walk.

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4178961.html

Distance: 4.4 miles

Footpaths: Y11a, Y16, Y1, Y4, Y5, Y6

Remains of St Swithun's Church