Whitecliff Bay is a sandy bay near Foreland which is the easternmost point of the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

, England, about two miles south-west of

Bembridge Bembridge is a village and civil parish located on the easternmost point of the Isle of Wight. It had a population of 3,848 according to the 2001 census of the United Kingdom, leading to the implausible claim by some residents that Bembridge ...

and just to the north of

Culver Down Culver Down is a chalk down to the north of Sandown, Isle of Wight. It is believed that its name derives from "Culfre", which is Old English for dove. The down has a typical chalk downland wildlife on the uncultivated areas (generally the south ...

. The bay has a shoreline of around and has a popular sandy

shingle beach A shingle beach (also referred to as rocky beach or pebble beach) is a beach which is armoured with pebbles or small- to medium-sized cobbles (as opposed to fine sand). Typically, the stone composition may grade from characteristic sizes ranging ...

which is over half a mile long. It is a tourist site with three holiday parks in the vicinity of the bay; it has two cafes though minimal facilities. Access is limited and only possible down two steeply sloping concrete tracks. The site is of major geological interest, being part of the Whitecliff Bay And Bembridge Ledges SSSI.

Geology

Whitecliff Bay has nearly identical geology to the lesser known

Alum Bay Alum Bay is a bay near the westernmost point of the Isle of Wight, England, within close sight of the Needles rock formation. Of geological interest and a tourist attraction, the bay is noted for its multi-coloured sand cliffs. The waters and adj ...

, being a coastal section of the same strata which run east–west across the island. It displays a classic sequence of fossil-bearing

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

beds of soft sands and clays, separated by an

unconformity An unconformity is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval o ...

from the underlying

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

Chalk Formation The Chalk Group (often just called the Chalk) is the lithostratigraphic unit (a certain number of rock strata) which contains the Upper Cretaceous limestone succession in southern and eastern England. The same or similar rock sequences occur a ...

forming the headland of Culver Down to its south. Due to geological folding of the Alpine orogeny, the strata in the main section of the Bay are vertical, with younger rocks to the north. In the bay, there are around of well-exposed sands and of late

Palaeocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''palai� ...

to late

clays which make the site is a good spot for

fossil hunting Fossil collecting (sometimes, in a non-scientific sense, fossil hunting) is the collection of fossils for scientific study, hobby, or profit. Fossil collecting, as practiced by amateurs, is the predecessor of modern paleontology and many st ...

, with an abundance of prehistoric shells, sponges and

molluscs Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil sp ...

. The bay itself is shallow up to around from shore getting to deep water out.

History

Whitecliff Bay was one of the landing points for the

French invasion of the Isle of Wight (1545) The French invasion of the Isle of Wight occurred during the Italian Wars in July 1545. The invasion was repulsed. France had a long history of attacking the Isle of Wight, and the 1545 campaign proved to be the last time to date that the F ...

where they planned to go on to attack

Sandown Sandown is a seaside resort and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom with the resort of Shanklin to the south and the settlement of Lake, Isle of Wight, Lake in between. Together ...

. The bay gets its name from the chalky cliff on the headland,

, which rises over at the south-eastern point of the bay.

References

External links

Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park
{{Bays on the Isle of Wight Tourist attractions on the Isle of Wight Bays of the Isle of Wight Geology of the Isle of Wight Bembridge