The Isle of Wight Coastal Walk

We did this in the month of October both years and our mileage was slightly more around 74 miles, and in our opinion the Brighstone to Yarmouth section is harder clockwise than anti-clockwise. We also had a few days break at the end - highly recommended. Our start and stops clockwise were; Brighstone Village; Yarmouth; E. Cowes; Ryde; Shanklin Old Village; Niton; and finishing at Brighstone for a night and then a few nights returning to Shanklin Old Village to relax. Generally well sign posted but a guide is needed and a OS map just in case and we know The Island quite well. There are a few diversions which were well signposted but we did come across some signs in over grown hedges, and some turned around facing the wrong direction. We saw some parts of The Island we had never seen before despite having many holidays on The Island, this made it more worthwhile.

Our start and stops anti-clockwise were; Shanklin Old Village, Ryde, E. Cowes, Yarmouth, Brighstone, Niton, and finishing at our starting point and a few days rest in Shanklin Old Village. Weather was very good indeed both years for the month of October, one year we needed to purchase travel suncream on day two. Take note when planning and booking this there are not many places to stay in Brighstone.

In the view above, the first big day of the clockwise direction; Brighstone to Yarmouth we had all the coastline in view to walk and even some more around the other side.

We were in our late 50s when we first did this coastal walk, reasonably fit and although we could have pushed for doing this in 5 days but we prefer to have a short last day and visit a pub and have lunch when we can along the way - highly recommended. Walks we have done after the first year of our I.O.W. coastal walk are, The Dalesway, and The Cleveland Way. Note that the distance for The I.O.W. coastal walk in 2024 I am informed is approaching nearly 80m due to diversions.

For more walk suggestions go to Things to do