Where is hurst castle spit

And unless you keep to the slightly harder and mostly invisible well-trodden path, the going is even harder. Have I talked you out of it yet?

I hope not. And the scenery, whilst not perhaps as spectacular as a lunar sunrise, is amazing — and invigorating. You can make the walk as long as you like by starting further up the coast at Milford, or by approaching via the Solent Way from Lymington; but we usually make it a little easier on ourselves by parking at the end of Saltgrass Lane in Keyhaven, crossing the old wooden bridge past the ever-present crabbing children, and up the steep shingle rise to the top of the bank.

A couple of words of warning though; there are two things to watch out for when parking on the road: traffic wardens and almost as unstoppable , the tide. So on with the walk. To the south lie the unmistakable Needles rocks and Needles lighthouse, standing guard off the western end of the Isle of Wight. You might even be able to make out Spinnaker Tower at Portsmouth.

As you walk towards it, to the left is Keyhaven Lake where I learned to windsurf quite a few years ago. It was a great if a little pungent place to learn; nicely sheltered from the sea cashing on the other side of the spit, but with brisk south-westerly to get you shifting. Today the castle is a worthwhile museum and displays a range of guns and canons from various eras, up to and including World War II, when the castle was occupied by Coastal Artillery soldiers.

The most impressive are the 38 ton guns , of which there are two. Each gun took no less than 12 men to operate it. In Victorian times at Hurst Castle there were originally 10 of these, and with a three mile range the lb shells could have easily crossed The Solent!

Much of the building remains untouched from its last time of wartime renovations, and the maze of rooms and corridors gives a good insight into what life must have been like for the occupants. Telephone: Website: www. Keyhaven is located a couple of miles south-west of Lymington , the closest major road from the New Forest is the A from Brockenhurst. Alternatively park at Milford-on-Sea to the west, but this will add another mile to the walk! Explore the attraction using satellite imagery.

View some live Hurst Spit and Castle webcams. Hurst Spit is a shingle bank at the easternmost point of Christchurch Bay and extends 2. It is an important coastal defence, protecting the Western Solent from flooding and sheltering the designated area of saltmarsh to the north along the boundary with the North Solent SMP.

Although originally formed by natural processes, Hurst Spit is now maintained by regular shingle recycling operations. The Spit has been declining in volume, probably since the 's when coast protection works in Christchurch Bay first began to interrupt movement of the shingle that maintains its stability. The reduction in sediment supply led to several breaches and in m ajor work was undertaken to replenish the spit with shingle and to construct a rock breakwater and new rock revetment and current management includes regular shingle replenishment and monitoring.

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