Osborne Bay is a bay on the north-east coast of the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, in the eastern arm of

the Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay to ...

. It lies to the east of

East Cowes East Cowes is a town and civil parish in the north of the Isle of Wight, on the east bank of the River Medina, next to its west bank neighbour Cowes. The two towns are connected by the Cowes Floating Bridge, a chain ferry operated by the Isle ...

and is from the entrance to the

River Medina The River Medina is the main river of the Isle of Wight, England, rising at St Catherine's Down near Chale, and flowing northwards through the county town Newport, towards the Solent at Cowes. The river is a navigable tidal estuary from Newpo ...

. Its shoreline is in length and is gently curving. It stretches from Old Castle Point in the west to Barton Point to the east. It is named for the neighbouring

Osborne House Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house himself, in ...

estate on the shore, which owns the land facing the bay. The bay has a beach, which is privately owned, is open to the public. It is around 300 yards long, and predominantly consists of shingle and sand. The seabed is a mixture of mud and sand, and is shallow up to around a of a nautical mile out. In the summer, the bay is popular for yacht anchorage, being sheltered from the prevailing south-westerly winds, and can become very crowded.

History

In 1845 Osborne House was bought by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

and Prince Albert and became a popular retreat for them and the Royal Family to holiday. It was where her children learned to swim, and it the first place the Queen swam in the sea. As was popular at the time, she used an ornate

Bathing machine The bathing machine was a device, popular from the 18th century until the early 20th century, to allow people to change out of their usual clothes, change into swimwear, and wade in the ocean at beaches. Bathing machines were roofed and walled woo ...

to change and enter the water. After her death in 1901, the bathing machine was removed and the estate, including the bay, was gifted to the nation in 1902 by her successor,

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

. The Royal Naval College, Osborne was later established on the estate. The beach was used for troop training before the

D-Day landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

; during these exercises, severe damage was done to the pavilion and piers on the bay. The beach was first open to the public in summer 2012, and its owners,

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

, have a marine licence allowing there to be a marked swimming area for visitors.

References

Bays of the Isle of Wight Beaches of the Isle of Wight {{IsleofWight-geo-stub