#CulverDown

If you live on the Isle of Wight you have walked on Culver Down and almost certainly sat around Culver monument and been stunned by the view. If you are a regular Solent / Channel sailor - the chalk headland or promontory that is Culver and the unmistakeable Yarborough Monument that sits on top - forms a reassuring sight (you have found the Isle of Wight - lol !)

Culver Down is a chalk down - that forms the eastern tip of the Isle of Wight - the chalk spine that runs through the length of the Island to the western tip where it is known as Tennyson Down and of course The Needles. (Downland, chalkland, chalk downs or just downs are areas of open chalk hills, such as the North Downs. This term is used to describe the characteristic landscape in southern England where chalk is exposed at the surface. The name "downs" is derived from the Old English word dun, meaning "hill")

Why am I bothering to write a blog about Culver Down - somewhere anyone who knows the Island will already know?

Well I have been up on Culver a million times - well an exaggeration - but a lot! Familiarity breeds contempt they say. Well it is not contempt - I love being up on Culver - it is perhaps more we take it for granted - it always delivers and it is not hard to get to.

Why is Culver so special? I am sat here at my table and am going to think of a few reasons!

well - it is chalk down land and hard to beat for walking. Open - (invariably treeless) - a soft cushion of grass - by definition high - invariably agricultural (grazing) and unspoilt - as much of our down land is protected - SSSI designated.
Culver Down sticks out into the sea with the end facing east. Culver is a headland with Whitecliff Bay to the north and Sandown Bay to the south and far below. As such with its white chalk cliffs (as Dover) it is an extremely prominent landmark. There is a mass expanse of water to see and the seascape is invariably dotted with boats and ships and of course huge skies. The mainland is in view and it feels special to look down on it for some reason.
It always makes me smile to walk on chalk downs. It just seems staggering it was part of the seabed. (pushed up as a ripple effect of the clash between the Eurasian and African tectonic plates which created the Alps - see my geology of the IOW blog). Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of sub-microscopic plankton which had fallen to the sea floor.
Culver is quiet because there is only one narrow road in. There is little or no noise pollution. You can hear the birds unless it is windy - which it often is of course.
There are so many different footpaths to ascend and descend Culver. It can be a strenuous walk (not that strenuous or long really) which makes the view from the top something of a reward. Culver is a popular target for runners and joggers too.
Have you noticed when you are up high looking down time seems to standstill. Everything in view is either stationary or moving very slowly. It is tranquil.
The view from Culver is 360 degrees. You can see for miles and miles including much of the Isle of Wight.
Culver is a great place for a picnic - to lay in the sun because you can always find somewhere in the lee - to sit and contemplate - for a romantic tryst lol. The plinth around the Yarborough monument is a lovely place to sit and popular with the walkers. If you are very lucky you can find both the lee and the sun!
Sadly Culver has also been a place for suicide - a car over the cliff. (Apparently preventative measures have now been made.)
It is hard to get to the top of Culver and not think of the Walk the Wight because it is effectively the start of the great walk - 26 miles. We have a love hate relationship with WTW!
Culver is a great place to watch the spectacle of the Round the Island race if you get the timing right. Spinnakers flying as the boats come up the back of the Wight and then to turn into the eastern Solent to slog it out up to the Cowes finish (very occasionally it is the other way around and spinnakers to the finish
And last but not least the Yarborough Monument. It can be seen for miles as I have referred. I have downloaded some detail : The monument is a memorial to Charles Anderson-Pelham, the 2nd Baron Yarborough (later first Earl of Yarborough and also Baron Worsley), founder of the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes. It was originally erected in 1849 on the highest point of Bembridge Down, 3/4 mile to the west, and was moved to its present position in the 1860s when its former site was used for the construction of one of the Palmerston forts.
To round off - a summary from Wikipedia. :

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 southern and eastern slopes). This includes plants such as Small Scabious, Harebell, Cowslip and Lady's Bedstraw. The chalk cliffs to the north and east are important nesting places for seabirds. Historically, Culver has been the source of commercial bird's egg collecting from ropes over the cliff. It was also known for breeding peregrine falcons, as well as breeding Common Woodpigeons (Culvers), the source of the cliff's name.

The northern side is intensively grazed by cattle, so fertilization and poaching of the soil, not to mention a spell as an artillery training ground, have all but eliminated the natural chalk ecosystem.

On Culver Down a number of unusual ant species live, including the semi-myrmecophilous Solenopsis fugax (Latr.), a thief ant which was recorded there several times by Horace Donisthorpe. The ant Ponera coarctata has also been taken from this location.

The public parts of this prominent headland are owned and managed by the National Trust, and afford views of the English Channel.

For many years the whole site was a military zone and not open to the public. There are several historic military features on the down, a number of private dwellings, the Culver Haven pub, and the very visible Monument. The military barracks which once adjoined the monument has been almost completely erased, but there is a substantial fort, now under the ownership of the National Trust and occasionally opened to the public. Part of the fort is leased to Micronair, manufacturing crop-spraying and military equipment. It is a Palmerston Fort, constructed in the 1860s. At the end of the cliff is a coastal and anti-aircraft battery from the Second World War.

In 1545 a French force was intercepted crossing from its beachhead at Whitecliff Bay to attack Sandown by local levies under Sir John Oglander and a skirmish fought on the Down. The French were finally repulsed at Sandown.

The poet Algernon Charles Swinburne said in a letter that he had climbed the cliffs at 17, in order to prove his manhood to his family after they refused to let him join the army.

There is a legend that a 14th-century hermit lived at the end of the cliffs in a cave, in a structure then known as Culver Ness. He is said to have predicted that the well at Wolverton would be poisoned. When a pilgrim from Jerusalem came to bless the well, the vigilant and pious villagers are said to have murdered him. Shortly after, the French sacked the village and since then it has been lost beneath the trees of Centurion's Copse. They were repulsed from further mischief by Sir Theobald Russell. There was subsequently a great storm which destroyed the Ness and drowned the hermit. This was held to be divine retribution.

Here are a few photos :