Two-thirds of A Treasure Trail in Shanklin

Shanklin's Treasure Trail is one of 10 on the Isle of Wight

My mother rarely gets much of a say on where we go on family days out. She usually receives a text at around 9am to inform her that we are going to Tapnell Farm/Mottistone Manor Gardens/Asda etc. and that she is welcome to join us.

I tell her that we will be there at 10am, and then I send her another message at 9.45am to say that we are running late and will be there at 10.30am. We then meet her at 10.45am or sometimes 11am. There is an unwritten understanding that 10am doesn't really mean 10am.

However, with her birthday approaching I offered my mother free reign to suggest her dream day out with the grandchildren. 

She came up with a plan that we would spend the day digging her garden and pulling out pond weed. She insisted that by the end of the day we would all be thanking her.

We swiftly put a stop to that ludicrous suggestion and explained that there were limits to my generous offer.

The follow up suggestion was a treasure hunt around Shanklin followed by rounders on the beach at Yaverland. This sounded much more appealing to me, so we agreed to meet at 10am.

True to form, we met in Shanklin at 11am.

The Shanklin Treasure Trail

We have written much about Treasure Trails on this website.

We had previously completed seven of them, out of a total of 10. Some are better than others, but they are all good fun. 

You pay about £10 and are given a sheet of clues. They work well with children, who are happily tricked into going on a local history walk under the guise of it being a treasure hunt.

The Shanklin trail starts at the big car park in the old village. We opted to park at the Big Mead car park, which is one of Shanklin's excellent free alternatives to coughing up for parking.

The first clue was a little ambiguous, so we wasted a few minutes in the churchyard near Big Mead before confirming our error and heading for the old village.

Shanklin is a nice town for mooching, with a thatched old village

What I like about Treasure Trails is that you are forced to notice things that you had previously driven past and paid no attention to. 

In Shanklin, this took us past the war memorial and a large sculpture nearby that I had never really noticed. It also took us down some pretty back streets so we could stumble across hotels and businesses and Mrs Guru could say "oh, that's where that is!"

Thankfully, the sun was shining, which made a big difference to the general vibe. Shanklin is one of those Isle of Wight towns that comes alive on a sunny day but can feel a bit dreary on a wet and windy day. Ventnor is in the same category. Of course, a bit of sunshine makes anywhere look better but seeing drops of rain pouring down an advert for ice cream is a little bit sad. Seeing families and old dears enjoying an ice cream on the esplanade on a sunny day is far more pleasant.

With the sun shining and a light breeze, Shanklin looked lovely. The trail led us along a footpath that I hadn't been down, and into a park that I had driven past numerous times but never explored (I am being deliberately vague in my descriptions, in case you end up doing the trail). 

Shanklin has a good selection of green spaces for wandering

Rumbling stomachs

At this point, I received the first request for lunch. We had made it to about 11.45am, which is pretty good going for us. Without a treasure hunt, the first request would have been about 11.15am.

I suggested that the treasure hunters carried on and that I would go to Co-op to get a selection of meal deals. My mother thrust £20 of Co-op vouchers into my hand that had been living in a drawer since Victoria was on the throne.

Choosing lunch is never a stress free task in our family, but I did enjoy strolling back to the car as the sun shone. I returned half an hour later with a selection of wraps, a few bits of fruit protected by plastic packaging (as God intended) and multiple flavours of smoothie that I wouldn't possibly have bought if they weren't sold as a bundle. The lady on the till said "I've not seen these in a while" as she scanned my antique vouchers.

After lunch, the trail continued onto the seafront, and delivered the money-shot of Shanklin towards Luccombe (see the top of the page). A series of cliff paths and footpath closures meant that the planned route had to be altered, but we got the general idea of where the trail was meant to go.

Shanklin has suffered from a number of footpath closures - including this one near Shanklin Chine

By the time we reached clue 11 of 19, time was running away from us. We had committed to a series of other tasks for the afternoon including fitting a shower screen and getting milkshakes from the self-service machine at Crocker's Farm near Cowes. 

I informed my mother that the remaining clues and the rounders match would need to wait a few weeks, but that we would return for the final eight clues. Luckily, I had bought some birthday flowers from Co-op, which softened the blow.

And no, before you ask, I didn't use my mother's vouchers to buy her birthday flowers. Although, I would have done if the meal deals hadn't been so expensive.

We will return to Shanklin in a few weeks to complete the trail. Hold onto your hats.