Alum Bay, The Needles and Tennyson Down
| This page is about Alum Bay, The Needles and Tennyson Down. For other information about staying at Freshwater Bay House see the page here. |
Whatever else you do on the holiday you must see the Needles and Tennyson Down.
Behind Freshwater Bay House is Tennyson Down. If you want to avoid the ascent you can go on a path to the right of it but that gets extremely muddy in winter.
There are good views looking back from Tennyson Down:
On the top is Tennyson Monument:
Beyond Tennyson Down you can see the buildings where the UK's Black Knight and Black Arrow rockets were attached and test fired from 1955. After being tested here they were sent to Australia to be launched. As soon as the UK successfully launched a satellite they canceled the program:
In summer there are exhibitions and refreshments in this underground building.
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The Needles Old Battery is a National Trust site (closed in winter) it costs about £10 to go in. You have to pay the entrance fee to use the Tea-room and Toilet. |
| There are views of the Needles: |  |
At Alum Bay its all a bit touristy, even it winter there are a few tourist coaches and in summer its packed. However it does have a cafe and toilets.
There is a chair lift (not in winter) and steps down to the beach to see the coloured sands. I wouldn't bother to go down there unless you want to take the boat trip round the needles.
Alum Bay with its multi-coloured sand cliffs:
Also Alum Bay is the end of the route for number 7 and number 12 busses.
The number 12 goes back to Freshwater Bay so you can make it a linear walk if you don't want to retrace your steps back to the house. However route 12 is not very frequent so you need to study the timetable carefully.
If you are going to to this I think its best to reverse the walk and catch the bus out and walk back. When I went there was a bus from Freshwater Bay at a convenient time in the morning.
To make the walk longer I like to get off the number 12 bus at Totland (bus stop is called Totland, War Memorial) then walk along Madeira Road to the pier at Totland Bay.
Then walk back round the coast.
From Totland you can walk a short distance along the esplanade but you soon need to go up the steps to the Cliff Road (because of land slip) after walking along the road you can turn off to Headon Warren:
Hatherwood Battery can be a convenient place to sit on the fort ruins for a snack.
the continue the above walk in the reverse direction.
Another variation on the walk would be to walk round to Totland and then walk back to the house via Golden Hill Fort and Freshwater.
Golden Hill Fort is sunk down low so that it cant be seen from the sea. It has now been converted into flats.
Other Walks from Freshwater Bay
- Alum Bay, The Needles and Tennyson Down
- Carisbrooke to Freshwater Bay ( Tennyson Trail)
- Totland, Colwell Bay, Fort Victoria and Yarmouth
- Robert Hooke Trail
- Hamstead Trail
- Shorwell - Brighstone - Freshwater Bay via coast
- Carisbrooke Castle
- Osborne House
- Dimbola Museum and Galleries
- Mottistone Manor
- Farringford
| This page is about Alum Bay. For other information about staying at Freshwater Bay House see the page here. |
Other Documents on this site
Click on the following for more information
| Former HF Houses | |
|---|---|
| Conwy (1914- 2011) |  |
| Newlands (1914- 1987) |  |
| Swanage (1947- 1995) |  |
| Isle of Arran (1925- ) |  |
| Scarborough (1954- 1998) |  |
| Lulworth |  |
| Beddgelert |  |
| New Inns |  |
| Penrith |  |
| Milford-on-Sea |  |
About This SiteHere is some information I have gathered together about getting to and walking from HF houses when leaving the car at home. On these pages I have also put some history about former HF houses I have visited. The information here is based on my visits to HF houses over the years. It may be out of date so don't rely on anything here without checking. If you find any errors why not let others know by putting a post on the HF Holiday Fans ( unofficial) Facebook forum. I will try to quote such posts here so they don't get lost. This is information I have discovered over the years which would have been useful to know before. Unfortunately the travel information on the HF website, for getting to houses by public transport, is poor. I think it would be better if the information on this page were on the HF website. |
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