Isle of Wight trip

March 2026

A select ten members stayed in a very smart Air bnb in Freshwater, Isle of Wight for a nice long early spring weekend this March. Due to high winds forecast, our initial ferry was cancelled and we drove instead to Lymington and took the very short crossing to Yarmouth, from where our accommodation was but a stone’s throw!

Our first morning dawned dry but exceedingly windy and we split into a faster and slower group; intentions being to possibly meet up for lunch. The faster group took a lower level route out towards Shalcombe and Brook Down, where a coffee break with a wide ranging view was enjoyed. Then we turned into the (very strong!) wind along the Tennyson Trail over Compton Down and into Freshwater Bay. We lunched in the lee of a cliff and had hoped to follow the Freshwater way back along flat ground to our base but it was under a good foot of water! After a bit of head scratching Ali led us along a causeway and back to the River Yar which took us home. A good 12 miles or so and very blustery! The other group took our return route outbound and kept relatively low instead of climbing into the gales – they ended up doing almost the same mileage!

Day two saw us following the coast path from Yarmouth past Fort Victoria and on to Alum Chine, where the shorter group caught the bus back to Yarmouth for a bimble around the town. The other group forged on to the Needles for lunch with a view before continuing on to Tennyson Down where we had a serendipitous meeting with Sally, a member of the club holidaying with the husband who was walking her dog – and invited us all back to her holiday cottage for tea and cake! We then took a straight line path back to base for a sumptuous meal.

Our final half day walk started with a drive across towards Fishbourne where our ferry would depart later. We explored Quarr Abbey and all set off together to walk a loop of around 8 miles; however it was flooded in places and very difficult to find a way through, so after lunch we retraced our steps and took a short cut back to the start just before the rain began.

Thanks to Ali for organising and planning the walks. It was the perfect spring weekend, and very comfy accommodation too!

 Leader: Ali Edwards

Sue