Isle of Wight Holiday June 2011 - page 1
It's only a short sailing across the Solent on the
ferry from the mainland to the lovely Isle of Wight. Once there
and settled in our comfortable holiday cottage, Carisbrooke Castle in
Newport beckoned, with its endearing wellhouse donkeys. Then
right over in the west of the island we visited The Needles Park where
Mike relived his childhood by collecting coloured sands in an ornament,
following which we visited the nearby Old Battery fort where we walked
the spooky underground tunnel to the searchlight emplacement.
This is page one of three.
Isle of
Wight 1 | Isle of Wight 2 | Isle of Wight 3
|
|
Fortunately it was a calm crossing on the Isle of Wight car ferry for
our week's holiday; we sailed from Portsmouth to Fishbourne but there
are other routes to the island. Here's Belinda on deck watching
the returning ferry as we left Portsmouth.
|
Newport is in the center of the Isle of Wight and the town's
Carisbrooke Castle is a major tourist and educational attraction.
The castle building ahead is where King Charles I was imprisoned in
1647 and got himself stuck in the window bars trying to escape!
|
|
This view shows the main castle building with the well house to the
right and the castle's Norman Shell Keep behind. The Edwardian
style Princess Beatrice garden in the foreground sadly seemed to be not
at its best on our visit. We had...
|
...a rather lacklustre snack lunch in the castle's tea room (we've
had a run-in with poor English Heritage catering before). Moving
on, the friendly Carisbrooke donkeys were simply adorable! We got
the chance to say hello before heading to the...
|
|
...Elizabethan wellhouse and wheel where they demonstrated how they
raise the bucket of water 49 metres up the well using donkey power in
the 16th century tread wheel. The excellent demonstrations ran at
regular intervals and included...
|
...the tipping of water down the well to illustrate its great depth -
the water took some five seconds before we heard it hit the
bottom. Another fact we learnt was the bottom of the well is home
to an assortment of mobile phones and cameras!
|
|
Next up was a walk around Carisbrooke Castle's wall which proved to be
a bit of a challenge with the never ending school parties squeezing
past every few minutes. We made it to...
|
...the Norman Keep where Mike was able to admire the view over Newport
and beyond. The handy notices spaced frequently around the
castle's wall were very informative and well maintained.
|
|
Our final visit area was to the absorbing Carisbrooke Museum which gave
a vivid insight into the castle's history, including King Charles I
room he tried to escape from. The Carisbrooke Castle website and
other IOW links are in our UK tourist
resources.
|
OMG, all that clobber soldiers of old had to wear sure was heavy, as
Mike found out when he tried to lift this helmet - he'll stick to his
baseball cap!
Carisbrooke Castle is run by English Heritage and adult entrance cost
£7.30 on our visit.
|
|
Another day and off to the Isle of Wight's most western part and The
Needles Park, an attraction with plenty to do for families such as
fairground rides, glass and sweet making demonstrations, and...
|
...collecting the famous Alum Bay coloured sands in a souvenir!
Now Mike's so old he remembers scrambling up the beach cliff as a child
to scrap away at the sand; nowadays you choose your ornament...
|
|
...and fill it with the naturally occurring 21 different shades of sand
in the Sand Shop...
|
...creating another unique multi-coloured sand gift from the Alum Bay
sands!
|
|
We just had to have a ride on the chairlift down to Alum Bay beach -
and in the process got some wonderful views of the Needles
Lighthouse. Boat trips operate for a closer look at the
lighthouse.
|
The Needles chairlift runs continually and operatives assist with
getting on/off. We took this pic when about half way down,
worryingly no-one seemed to be returning in the chairs heading back up!
|
|
Collecting the coloured sands from the cliffs on Alum Bay beach is no
longer permitted in order to preserve the environment, hence the
tape. The Needles Park is run by Heritage Attractions - the same
outfit who run the Land's
End park we visited the previous year.
|
A short cliff top walk from The Needles Park is the Needles Old
Battery, a Victorian fort built 1861-95 to defend the Isle of Wight
coastal passage from French invasion. It was also used in both
world wars and is now run by the National Trust. Our entry cost
£4.50.
|
|
The Isle of Wight is surrounded by water so you'd hope the stuff
wouldn't come from above too! We escaped down this rather narrow
spiral staircase...
|
...at the Needles Old Battery and along the twisting and eerie 65 metre
long underground tunnel that runs under the Parade Ground to...
|
|
...the old searchlight emplacement where, apparently, the best view of
the Needles Lighthouse can be had. But, thanks to the rapidly
closing-in weather, we saw... absolutely nothing!
We later headed over to the New Battery where Britain's 60s space
rockets Black Knight and Black Arrow were tested, but the New Battery
was closed.
|
Back up top at the Old Battery we did get a view - just - of
the lighthouse and chalk needles through the murk, it would be a lot
better in a lot better weather though. Even so, we enjoyed our
fascinating visit to the Needles Batteries. Now, on the next page
we get some warm Isle of Wight sunshine for our two lovely walks to Shanklin and Godshill
>>>
|
|
Isle of Wight 1
| Isle of Wight 2 | Isle of Wight 3
|
