Chale Bay

Whale Chine is a geological feature near Chale on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight, England (the Back of the Wight). One of a number of such chines on the island created by stream erosion of soft Cretaceous rocks, it is a narrow and steep coastal ravine dropping 140 feet through Lower Greensand rocks from clifftop farmland to Chale Bay. Its name probably originates from the Wavell family, owners of the nearby Atherfield Farm between 1557 and 1636. It is reached from a car park on the A3055 coastal road, where a stream running parallel to the cliff takes a right-angled bend to descend to the beach. In the past, descent to the beach at Whale Chine could be achieved by some 126 wooden steps, since their closure in 2005, these steps were washed away by the sea in the winter storms of 2013/14. As the beach is a popular fishing site, Local fisherman have constructed a new flight of stairs by carving steps down through the rock, although this is not recommended. Despite the old steps forming part of a footpath and legal Right of Way (footpath C34, Chale Parish), the Isle of Wight Council refused to repair them, stating that "major structural works at great expense would be required to make the path safe for use with no guarantee that such works would be a permanent solution." They have been inaccessible to the public since at least 2005 and subject to a "temporary closure" since then. Geologically the cliffs here belong to the Wealden supergroup and were deposited in a large scale meandering river and floodplain facies about 150 million years ago. The cliffs are famous for their fossil content which are commonly found in flash flood sandy deposits. These deposits can usually be recognized by the abundance of pyrite rich fossilized wood, and usually form as trough shapes. These troughs are characteristic of infilled stream channels caused by the deposition of the high energy carried material and organisms. Due to this the deposits are poorly sorted and the fossils amongst them are usually broken up.Whale Chine is a popular fishing spot for many anglers. It boosts very clear sandy ground with intermittent rock features. The species caught here vary, but it is locally known as one of the best spots on the island for ray fishing: This is best from March–October. All summer species can be caught here, and it's not uncommon for shoals of mackerel and bass to drive whitebait onto the shore. Throughout the winter the fishing declines abit, with pout being the most common fish caught. Whale Chine was the location of the wreck of the cargo ship Cormorant on 21 December 1886.

St. Andrew's Church, Chale is a parish church in the Church of England located in Chale, Isle of Wight.

Chale is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Wight of England, in the United Kingdom. It is located three kilometres from Niton in the south of the Island in the area known as the Back of the Wight. The village of Chale lies at the foot of St. Catherine's Down.

Blackgang Chine is the oldest amusement park in the United Kingdom, having opened in 1843. Named after a now-destroyed chine (a coastal ravine) in the soft Cretaceous cliffs, it is about 6 miles from Ventnor at the southern tip of the Isle of Wight just below St Catherine's Down. Blackgang Chine and its sister park Robin Hill are owned by the Dabell family. Blackgang Chine is home to many lands of imagination, including Pirate Cove, Restricted Area 5, Fairy Land and Village, and Cowboy Town. Owing to the unstable land on which the park is situated, landslides occur frequently, meaning that attractions have been moved further inland to safer ground on several occasions.

Blackgang is a village on the south-western coast of the Isle of Wight, England. It is best known as the location of the Blackgang Chine amusement park which sits to the south of St Catherine's Down. Blackgang forms the west end of the Ventnor Undercliff region, which extends for 12 kilometres from Blackgang to Luccombe, also encompassing the town of Ventnor and the villages of Bonchurch, St Lawrence, and Niton. It also marks the edge of the Back of the Wight.

Chale Green is a hamlet on the B3399 road about a mile inland from the village of Chale on the Isle of Wight. Administratively it is part of Chale.

St. Catherine's Down is a chalk down on the Isle of Wight, located near St Catherine's Point, the southernmost point on the island. The Down rises to 240 metres at its highest point, between the towns of Niton and Chale. Upon the hill is St. Catherine's Oratory (known locally as "the pepperpot"), which is a stone lighthouse built in the 14th century by Walter De Godeton. It is the second oldest, and only surviving, medieval lighthouse in the British Islands: only the Roman lighthouse at Dover is older. Reportedly, de Godeton was found guilty for having plundered wine that belonged to the Church from the shipwreck of the St. Marie of Bayonne in Chale Bay. He was ordered to make amends, under threat of excommunication, by building and maintaining the lighthouse. It was completed after his death, and staffed by a priest; fires were lit in the tower to warn ships of the coast. There was originally a chapel attached, which has since been demolished. A Bronze Age barrow near the Oratory was excavated in the 1920s. A replacement lighthouse was begun in 1785 but was never completed because the Down is prone to dense fog. Locally, the surviving foundations are known as the "salt cellar". After the wreck of the Clarendon in 1837, a new lighthouse, St Catherine's Lighthouse, was built to the west of Niton at the foot of the Undercliff. The River Medina, the main river of the Isle of Wight, rises at St Catherine's Down and flows northwards through the county town Newport, towards the Solent at Cowes.

St. Catherine's Oratory is a medieval lighthouse on St. Catherine's Down, above the southern coast of the Isle of Wight. It was built by Lord of Chale Walter de Godeton (sometimes spelled "Goditon") as an act of penance for plundering wine from the wreck of St. Marie of Bayonne in Chale Bay on 20 April 1313. The tower is known locally as the "Pepperpot" because of its likeness to a pepper shaker.

Atherfield is a rural location in the south west of the Isle of Wight, UK. It includes the small settlements of Atherfield Green and Little Atherfield, as well as several farms, and is set in largely open farmland. To the south west it is bounded by the cliffs of Chale Bay and Brighstone Bay, which are divided by Atherfield Point. The south-eastern part of Brighstone Bay is also sometimes known as Atherfield Bay, and was the site of a former holiday camp, now demolished.

Little Atherfield is a small settlement in the civil parish of Shorwell, on the Isle of Wight, England. It is near the coast in the Back of the Wight. The Isle of Wight is situated off the south coast of England.

Atherfield Ledge is a rocky outcrop extending from the coast of the Back of the Wight, Isle of Wight. This is a famous shipwreck location. Along with Brook Ledge and Brighstone Ledge it is one of the area's main shipping hazards.

Watershoot Bay is a bay on the southernmost tip of the Isle of Wight, England. It lies 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) to the south-west of the village of Niton. It faces south out into the English Channel, and is one of the smallest and remotest bays of the Isle of Wight with a rocky shoreline only around 500 feet (150 m) in length. It lies to the west of St. Catherine's Point lighthouse and is surrounded by a 170-acre area of undulating grassland and scrub owned by the National Trust and known as Knowles Farm.The beach is composed predominantly of sandstone, chalk and chert boulders (which are around 90 to 110 million years old) which are rich in fossils.The bay is best accessed from the car park about 350 yards (320 m) to the north or from the road that leads to the lighthouse but will involve a hike over rough terrain.The name of the bay may have come from that of a sloop lost there in 1755. The bay was home to a boathouse from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century.