Foreland

Foreland stands at the eastern tip of the Isle of Wight, near Bembridge village. It is a low headland reached by a short walk from the car park beside the Crab and Lobster Inn. The ledges extend into the Solent, where Bembridge Ledge reefs shelter edible crabs, lobsters and spider crabs. Mackerel shoals move through the clear water close to the shore. The inn itself keeps photographs of old shipwrecks, including the submarine HMS Alliance and the troopship S.S. Mehndi. Foreland Fields covers the landward side of the point. The ledges were once notorious for wrecks and smuggling, and the channel called Dickie Dawes Gut remembers a local smuggler. A Second World War pillbox now sits within the modern sea defences. The beach is sandy with scattered stones that contain Cretaceous fossils. Horsetails ferns grow on the cliffs above the strand. Paths run along the top of the cliffs and down to the beach. The Crab and Lobster Inn offers a place to eat and drink beside the water. Coastguards keep watch from their lookout above the ledges. The reefs and the ledges together make this a quiet corner where the sea’s edge is always busy with wildlife.