A Precarious Walk Along Niton's Cripple Path and Niton's Tunnels

The Cripple Path leads to this overhanging cliff

The Cripple Path and Tunnels in Niton is an excellent short walk for adventurous hikers and explorers with a good set of walking boots.

I would not recommend this walk for young children, pushchairs, wobbly grandparents, nervous nellies or flip flop wearers. 

It is an exciting little trip which doesn't take long but you will almost certainly face major peril if you don't pay attention.

We parked on Puckaster Lane and walked along Undercliff Drive to the start of footpath number NT117. You can see it on Google maps here. ​

We followed this footpath off Undercliff Drive

According to an Isle of Wight Council document, 'The name was first recorded in 1608 and comes from an Old English word for a narrow passage'. They reference a book written in 1940 by Kökeritz.

From there it was a steep climb up for a few minutes until we reached the rather impressive overhanging cliff. There's a steep drop and no handrails here, so don't walk backwards to get a family photo.

I made the foolish decision to send my drone up at this point. I skilfully navigated it through the gap in the trees with the plan of lowering it back through the same small hole.

Unfortunately, my finger slipped and the drone disappeared out of view. It then began bleeping at me to let me know that its battery was two minutes away from failing. Needless to say, it was squeaky bum time until I finally landed it.

After this excitement we continued to climb and then turned left to follow the footpath along the top of the cliff. The original footpath has been closed as it was getting rather close to the cliff so we ended up walking behind hedges for some of the way. Eventually, the view opened up to give us one of the South Wight's many excellent views.

The original footpath has gone so you have to follow a less scenic route...

...although it does eventually deliver a great view

We then carried on and followed the footpath which led us down to Niton's tunnels. By the time you've gone through these you have pretty much completed a circle. 

The whole thing took us about half an hour. The drone survived, as did we.

The sign leading from the bottom of the hill to the Niton tunnels

The tunnels lead back to Undercliff Drive