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Isle of Wight themed walks and trails

The Isle of Wight Coastal Path is my go-to suggestion for keen walkers who want to see the best of the Isle of Wight. Our guide to the coastal path is here. If I can't see the sea on an Isle of Wight walk then I feel short-changed.

However, there are plenty of other options which are themed around local history or a particular town. They are sometimes circular and can be completed in a few hours, whereas the coastal path requires several days. Also, some of the coastal path isn't child-friendly because of dangerous drops from cliffs.

We've dug out a few themed walks which are available online for free, mostly from the lovely people at Visit Isle of Wight. Some suggest actual routes whilst others just point out landmarks and leave you to work out how to get from A to B.

We've got a separate guide for families with very short strolls of 1-2 miles. These are good for dragging along children who would rather be sat at home playing Minecraft. There's also a thorough list of trails on the Isle of Wight Council website.

Themed Walks about local people (and a horse)

The Havilland Cottage Dickens Trails are two walks which have been created by the owners of a cottage in Bonchurch. They're based around the time Dickens spent in Bonchurch writing David Copperfield. The two routes are on Google maps and there's more detail about Dickens on the Isle of Wight on their website. I've not done the walks yet, but the creators reckon the short walk is about an hour and the longer walk is about two hours.

The Bonchurch end of the Bonchurch to Ventnor coastal path

Victoria's Island Trail follows the route that a young Victoria Beckham (nee Adams) took on a school trip to the Isle of Wight in the mid 1980s. Obviously that's not true, but I like to see if anyone is reading this waffle.

It actually came out to coincide with the release of Victoria and Abdul a few years ago. There's a printable document which has snippets of history about different pages and there's an itinerary for walkers which takes in some of the highlights. I'm not sure on the exact distance but it's an all-day thing.

This church in Whippingham was a popular spot for Queen Victoria

The Churchill Trail points out the various places on the Isle of Wight with connections to Winston Churchill. They include Winston's holidays in Ventnor and his parents' whirlwind romance in Cowes. There isn't a specific trail, you just plot your own path.

Churchill's parents met and got engaged at this house in Cowes

The Warrior Trail is a six mile walk around some pretty parts of the West Wight which celebrates the role of a famous horse. Apparently it's nothing to do with the War Horse film, but it is about a horse during the same war, so I'll forgive your confusion. There's a PDF of the route.

Mottistone Manor features on the Warrior Trail

The Literary Heroes Trail is more of an iSpy for book worms, as it shows you all the Isle of Wight places with a literary connection rather than planning a whole route for you (as far as I can tell). Tennyson features heavily as he set up home in Freshwater.

The view towards Tennyson Down, which was named after a writer (I forget which one)

music themed walks

The Tapnell Trail is a route around the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival site. It starts from Tapnell Farm which has a relaxed restaurant which serves up decent burgers. It's about six miles but you can cut off a corner. My mother did this one and said that it was pretty but that the scenery wasn't stunning compared to some Isle of Wight walks.
Nostalgic old hippies might also enjoy the musical trail around Wootton which covers the site of the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival.

Local history themed walks

The Rope Walk is a trail which links (West) Cowes and East Cowes and shows off their maritime history. I don't know the exact distance but it says it takes about three hours. It would be about three days with my family by the time we'd stopped at a café and a playground and then given up because we'd run out of snacks for the children.

The floating bridge links East Cowes and (West) Cowes

The Niton Smugglers' Trail was created by Niton and Whitwell Parish Council. It's a very detailed document about how the most of the village was seemingly involved in the smuggling trade in the 19th century and includes 14 places to stop. The map is on page 17. The smugglers trail is about 4.5 miles.

St Catherine's Lighthouse in the South Wight

The West Wight Heritage Trail (13 miles) and the Freshwater Bay Heritage Trail (6 miles) were created by a B&B in Freshwater. The longer route is mostly coastal and includes Yarmouth Castle, Fort Victoria and The Needles.

The coastline along the West Wight is a bit tasty

Pub themed walks on the Isle of Wight

You can stumble your way round 10 historic walks which tour between past-and-present pub locations of the Isle of Wight. They were created for the Beer and Buses weekend.

Options include Carisbrooke, Cowes, Gurnard, Northwood, Newport, Shanklin, Ryde, Shanklin, Ventnor and West Wight.

Nature themed walks on the Isle of Wight

The Histree Trails is a series of Isle of Wight walks which show off the Island's most significant and oldest trees. There are eight walks in total with names like 'Poets and Pines Histree Trail'.

Perhaps I'm getting old, but I was surprisingly interested in being told that a tree might be 500 years old or that fishermen used the willows in Yafford to make lobster pots.

They range in distance from about 2-10 miles and have nice maps to reduce the risk of getting lost.

They were written about 15 years ago, so there's a caveat on the website that says 'these trails are no longer accurate, and several of the trees in them are now lost to old age or inaccessible'.

River themed walks on the Isle of Wight

An organisation called Island Rivers offers trails with a rivery theme (Ed: stop making up words),

The Yar River Trail is an interesting one, as it follows the entire river from its source to the sea. It starts with a spring in Niton in the South Wight before wiggling its way to Bembridge in the East Wight.

The whole thing is 19 miles so some people split it up.

Another popular river themed walk on the Isle of Wight is the Medina Estuary Trail. It's a circular walk which heads down one side of the River Medina and back up the other. It's about 9 miles.