There is plenty of on the road parking in the village of Niton, so I parked in a cul-de-sac to start this walk. I then headed south along the main road to pick up the coastal path heading west at SZ505762. The views of St Catherine's Point, the lighthouse and the sea are lovely (see photo). It appeared that I was doubling back on myself when I took the footpath at SZ491763 and headed down to a car park on National Trust land. If you are interested in geology, there are some very interesting rock formations in this area!
There are a number of paths off of the car park but I took the one that went down to the beach. The path is quite steep in places and there is the opportunity to stray off the path to check out the views and take a closer look at the landscape, including a pond, and the flora.
The footpath ends on an orange shingle beach. This was a beautiful sunny day and the beach was not too busy, unlike other, more well-known, beaches nearby. The furthest end of the beach is a nudist beach. After resting for a few minutes on the beach, I took the path back up but forked off to the right a few metres below the car park. This path took me along an electric fence and down on to Watershoot Bay, where I saw a cormorant on the rocks.
I then followed the footpath through Knowles Farm, past the lighthouse and on to the road which led back to Niton. This route is just under 5 miles but took nearly two hours, as there were plenty of opportunities to stop and admire the view, plus the paths are steep and rocky in places!
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