A Walker's Guide to The Isle of Wight

The island is small (13 by 23 miles) but there is a great deal of excellent coastline and plentiful walking, plus good sea air. 32 routes including ten of the best walks, the Coastal Path, Vectis 8 trail and 12 shorter walks. Half and full-day walks.

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Walk 29: Yarmouth and Fort Victoria

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3 ½ miles (5.5km)
Start Grid Ref: 353896
Terrain: pavement, seawall, woodland and field paths and village roads. Mostly flat.
Refreshment Points: cafes and pubs at Yarmouth; café at Fort Victoria

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With its Tudor castle, Victorian pier and old town buildings, Yarmouth is a fascinating place to explore. There are many refreshment places and shops to browse around, overlooked by the tall tower of the 17th century St James Church. The town is also a busy foot-passenger and vehicle terminal for Wightlink’s Lymington ferries, and the harbour marina is usually a hive of activity.

Start by heading west past the waterfront and across the Yar swing bridge opened in 1987. Stay on the pavement until the road bends sharp left; here the coastal path which we begin by following turns off right to gain the sea wall. (In summer a pleasant alternative start is to catch the little Sandhard passenger ferry across the harbour and walk along Norton Spit to join the route at the sea wall).

Further along past villas, wooden steps on the left lead into a narrow path through trees where you pick up the minor road and turn right along it to Fort Victoria. It is also possible if conditions are favourable to reach Fort Victoria by continuing along the shingle foreshore past an old jetty.

The L-shaped single-storey casements of Fort Victoria are the remains of a much bigger complex build between 1852–55 to guard the waters of The Solent which are very narrow here at Sconce Point. Like many similar coastal defences, it never saw action and joined the ranks of ‘Palmerston follies’, named after the prime minister of the time. The old casements have been developed into a series of tourist attractions, including a Planetarium, a Maritime Heritage exhibition, an excellent Marine Aquarium (very popular with children) and a recommended café.

Continue by crossing the lawns between fort and shore, aiming inland to a corner of woods by an old experimental searchlight pit. Here you will find the onward coastal path – in fact a nature trail in mature woodland, it turns right onto an overgrown cobbled roadway originally built by the army to link Fort Victoria with Fort Albert at Cliff End just along the coast ahead (now a private residence). Walking through the woods, especially where steps are climbed, there are occasional glimpses over The Solent to the Tudor Hurst Castle and adjacent white lighthouse, less than a mile away on the mainland coast.

Eventually the path follows a holiday bungalow estate fence and reaches a road (Monks Lane). Turn left down the lane and in 300m watch for a stile and footpath sign on the left. It leads into a grassy field path through a secluded valley rich in wildflowers during early summer. Beyond Pratlands Copse on the left you reach a stile at a road. Keep right here, following the road as it curves left to a T-junction, then turn left and walk up through the village of Norton. In the trees ahead cross the road and take the coast path down to the foreshore where you will recognise the sea wall from the outward leg of the walk. All that remains is to retrace your steps over the Yar bridge and back into Yarmouth.