A Short Walk From Fort Victoria to Sandhard Beach in Yarmouth

The Isle of Wight is well-stocked with short walks of about one mile.

The 1.5 mile walk from Fort Victoria to Sandhard Beach and back is one of the lesser-known routes.

We attempted this one a couple of weeks after Easter. I had previously visited Sandhard Beach on my own, during an early morning trip without any trousers.

Cappuccinos and free parking

Here's a fort

​For the return visit, we parked at Fort Victoria. Parking is free, which is becoming rarer than spotting a red squirrel on the Isle of Wight (see our free parking guide if you are similarly annoyed by paying through the nose to park).

Fort Victoria is one of several Victorian-era forts built when Lord Palmerston became convinced that the French were about to invade. Others include Puckpool Battery and the circular forts in the middle of the Solent.

The French never did invade, so you can either see Lord Palmerston's efforts as providing a perfect deterrent or being a complete waste of time.

Either way, the Isle of Wight has been left with a series of interesting old buildings. This particular one currently houses attractions including a reptilarium, a planetarium and an imaginarium - where you can do craft activities and buy stuff. There are also two cafes, toilets and a woodland.

We were due to meet my mother and her husband, but they were running late so we had a nosey in the imaginarium. Child two spent her pocket money on a stuffed dog and I quizzed the owner about the pottery painting on offer (no, they don't have a kiln but they do varnish your artworks).

After 30 minutes of complaining about my mother being late, I stomped off and began the walk.

It is usually us that is running late, but I couldn't risk the walk getting too close to lunchtime. I also quite enjoyed smugly remarking that we had managed to get two children ready and out of the house and still arrived before them.

Getting walking

The walk to Sandhard Beach begins with a hard-going section along the shingly beach. Anyone training for an Ironman competition should go for a jog on this stuff.

We stopped at the Boat House, which is a nice little café right on the beach. They were still getting ready ahead of opening the following day, but a kind member of staff took pity on us and provided cappuccinos anyway. I think she could tell that we needed it.

At this point my mother arrived, giving me the perfect opportunity to say "good afternoon", even though it was long before noon. I don't think she enjoyed the joke as much as me.

The walk then continue on a smoother section of sea wall which passes Warner Leisure Norton Grange Holiday Village. There aren't railings, but for most of the way, there are steady steps down into the water rather than a huge drop. It's also fairly wide. 

I walked along the wall in the middle of this picture, because I'm very childish

Approaching Sandhard Beach

About three quarters of a mile from Fort Victoria we reached Sandhard Beach. As if often the case, the beach looked completely different from my last visit. Back in the summer, the tide had been quite low and the early morning sun was dazzling. 

On this occasion, there wasn't a whole lot of beach and the wind was blowing with some enthusiasm.

My dream had been to use the barbecue stands, which are provided at Sandhard Beach (thanks to Yarmouth Harbour). I had an image of us sat round the benches whilst roasting marshmallows and sharing stories of what a great dad I am. As it happened, we couldn't get the barbecue to light in the strong wind and most of the seating was underwater.

The best I managed was to briefly light my thumb, but it didn't heat up sufficiently to roast a marshmallow.

I admitted defeat and gave an apologetic speech about it being much nicer on a sunny day. 

The children seemed happy enough to eat the marshmallows without roasting them, and we began our walk back to the car.

Not our most successful outing then, but no-one cried or fell into the sea so we've certainly had worse.

This is what Sandhard Beach should have looked like (but it didn't on the grey day we visited)