Isle of Wight: The Needles and Batteries

On our first day in the Isle of Wight we headed for the coast, at the Western most edge of the island past Totland village and bay, to see The Needles.  The Needles are probably the most famous landmark on the Island and surrounded by a number of activities for families, including a chairlift and mini funfair.  The Needles themselves are a brisk walk from the car parking and attractions.  

This cute little cottage was on the way and the whole front of the cottage was full of models, gnomes and statues, a mix of cute, quirky and whimsical:

The views on the way there were beautiful, the kids moaned the whole time, I spent the whole time telling them to stay away from the edge of the walkway.

There was quite a bit to see and much of it was interactive and available for the children to touch and explore.  There was also toilets and a small shop where we stopped long enough to buy gloves (it really was cold up there) and a really pretty scarf for me with a landscape.

We didn’t spend long there and moved back outside to get a view of the needles.  The space up at the edge of the cliffs is serene and lovely to look at, but surprisingly to us, also so full of life.  We saw lots of rabbits hopping around, birds and butterflies while we were there.

This is a view of The Needles, we could only see two from here:

We had to walk a bit further up the road to get a better view, by this the time the sun had come up and we were starting to defrost a little and enjoy ourselves.

A pleasant few hours, with the beautiful views and brisk walk being well worth it.