The Devil's Chimney is a rock cleft in the area of the Bonchurch Landslips, between

Bonchurch Bonchurch is a small village in the civil parish of Ventnor, to the east of the town of Ventnor, now largely connected to the latter by suburban development, on the southern part of the Isle of Wight, England. One of the oldest settlements on the ...

and Luccombe,

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, formerly a scenic attraction with steps that descended into the landslip. The feature was initially thought to have been destroyed in a major landslide that occurred on the evening of 10 December 2023, but subsequent footage shows that it remains intact, although the whole area is now inaccessible to the public. Its upper end was at the Smuggler's Haven Tearooms at the base of Nansen Hill, at the southern end of clifftop parkland accessed from the Leeson Road car park on the

A3055 road The A3055 is an A-Class Road on the Isle of Wight in Southern England. It forms the Southern portion of the ''circular'' around-the-Island A-class loop, the northern section being the A3054. The stretch along the south-west coast of the Isl ...

, where there is a

Southern Vectis Southern Vectis is a bus operator on the Isle of Wight, founded in 1921 as Dodson and Campbell. It became the Vectis Bus Company in 1923. The company was purchased by Southern Railway before being nationalised in 1969. In 1987, the company wa ...

bus route 3 stop. One of several such paths connecting the clifftop to the Isle of Wight Undercliff, the Devil's Chimney followed a joint through the

Upper Greensand Greensand or green sand is a sand or sandstone which has a greenish color. This term is specifically applied to shallow marine sediment that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains. These grains are called ''glauconies'' and co ...

crags capping the cliffs above the Landslip. The path continued down through the Landslip as footpath V65C, meeting the coastal path V65A at its foot. Following the December 2023 event, all paths in the landslip area are now destroyed or closed as unsafe. A similar rock cleft, the

Chink ''Chink'' is an English-language List of ethnic slurs, ethnic slur usually referring to a person of Chinese people, Chinese descent, but also used to insult people with East Asian features. The use of the term describing eyes with epicanthic ...

, lies about 200 yards north. The feature is within the Bonchurch Landslip nature reserve, managed by Gift to Nature on behalf of the owners, Isle of Wight Council.

References

Landforms of the Isle of Wight Tourist attractions on the Isle of Wight Rock formations of England {{UK-geology-stub