IOW Coastal Path: West Cowes to Thorness Bay (8 miles)

I have walked most of the Isle of Wight Coastal Path in day-walks. Listed clockwise (but sometimes walked in the opposite direction), they are Ryde-Shanklin-Blackgang-Freshwater Bay-Yarmouth-Shalfleet. Of the remaining sections, Ryde-East Cowes is routed too far inland, and the official route of the ECP is still being disputed over access to the shore at the Osborne estate.

So that leaves West Cowes-Shalfeet. I have delayed doing that because for several years, the path along Thorness cliffs has been closed due to land slips. It was recently announced that this section (designated IOW8) has at last been reinstated as part of the process of opening the King Charles III England Coastal Path (what a mouthful - I'll call it ECP for short) around the island. In effect, the ECP follows the long-established IOW Coastal Path, and has acted as a spur to get such long-standing closures due to coastal erosion fixed. [Nevertheless, significant sections of the Coastal Path have yet to be officially added to the ECP. In particular, it would be good to see the lengthy boardwalks at Hamstead repaired: their closure meant a long diversion on my walk along that section.]

ECP sections opened as at September 2026 in light blue

Anyway, I was keen to add this walk to my collection. Here is a map showing my GPS track.

This expedition must take the record for the number of transport modes required: drive to my local station and park, train to Southampton Central, Quay Connect bus to the Town Quay, Red Jet passenger ferry to West Cowes. I then walked West Cowes - Gurnard - new path along Thorness cliffs - Thorness West Beach - footpath to Sportsman's Rest Inn at Porchfield - footpath and bridleway to the Three Gates Farm bus stop on the A3054 - No 7 Bus to Newport bus station - No 1 bus to West Cowes. Then reverse ferry - bus- train - drive back home. In fact it all worked very smoothly.

The walk from the Red Jet quay starts along Cowes High Street, always buzzing in summer with boating types in addition to the usual tourists. The route to Gurnard is along the esplanade beside the coastal road, with great views out across the Solent, where you will always see some yachts out cruising or racing, and trying to avoid being run down by the huge container ships heading into Southampton Water. On the landward side are up-market-looking apartment blocks and houses.

Gurnard has a little green on the slope overlooking the Solent, at which point the path leaves the road momentarily to reach a set of wooden steps and boardwalks refurbished as part of the ECP, which climb through Laura's Wood to emerge on a residential road. The sea wall is rejoined a few hundred metres further along: it is probably possible at low tide to avoid this inland diversion by walking along the beach.

They have made a very good job of repairing the path over Thorness cliffs. It has an excellent and hopefully durable aggregate surface, and the sections over the landslips have been remade, with wooden bridges laid on the ground to bolster the worst sections. The climb to the highest point is mainly hemmed in by trees and hedges to the seaward side, but around the bridges gaps have been left revealing excellent views across and along the Solent. The descent to Thorness Bay is more open. The adjacent fields seem to have sprouted several cabins which looked a bit alternative and 'off-grid'.

So I arrived at the beach in Thorness Bay. The Parkdean Holiday Village overlooks the bay (it is possible to call there for refreshments). Nevertheless the difficulty of public access and lack of facilities at the beach itself, plus the muddy nature of the beach at low tide means the beach is relatively quiet compared to the busy island resorts. The Bay is an SSSI. I visited here last year in the hope of walking along the beach to Gurnard whilst the path was closed. I got some way, but eventually it became too bouldery and slippery for me.

This completed the part of the walk along the official ECP. The IOW Coastal Path heads up through the holiday park, then follows inland roads to Newtown and onward to Shalfleet, which is not particularly inviting being neither coastal, nor a path. Instead I decided to try my luck by walking on westwards along the beach. I had timed my walk to coincide with low tide at about 3pm. The lower beach exposed at low tide is gooey mud in places, but the upper beach itself is fairly easy to walk on, being a mix of dry sand, wet sand, shingle and stones. The snag is that many trees have fallen on the beach from the wooded clay cliffs above, and the resulting tangled mess of trunks and branches was quite difficult to negotiate: the low tide was useful to enable one to walk around the seaward extremities, but you do have to look out for said gooey clay, which can be a real boot-sucker.

So, after some rather enjoyable scrambling, and with some sense of achievement, I reached the end of the beach, where it abuts the MOD Newtown live firing range, which bars any further progress. From here a very pleasant footpath headed inland over grass meadows, flanked by the lovely Burnt Wood on the left and MOD warning signs on the right, to Elmsworth Farm, then on along a track then lane to the hamlet of Porchfield. Here I paused for a drink at the friendly Sportsman's Rest Inn. (I was struck by how green the grass looked, compared to the frazzled grass at home after our prolonged heat waves.)

I then headed along a footpath and bridleway to the Three Gates Farm bus stop on the main road. I have found the Island bus network to be very efficient. It was handy being able to live track the buses on the bustimes.org website, and the No 7 bus duly arrived just a few minutes late. At Newport bus station, I transferred to a No 1 bus to West Cowes, for the Red Jet ferry back to the mainland.

Here are some photos. It was a lovely 'Indian Summer' day, although it clouded over in the middle of the day.