Freshwater Bay is located off the south coast of England, on the southwestern side and near the western extremity of the Isle of Wight. It is a small cove south of an inland village outside of which a vessel may anchor.

The bay provides an exposed anchorage that can only be used in settled conditions or moderate northerlies in the absence of any English Channel swell. Access requires attentive navigation as there are dangerous ledges outside the cove and projecting from each side within.

Best considered for a short visit or lunch stop in the event of an auspicious weather window.

Keyfacts for Freshwater Bay

Position and approaches

Haven position

50° 40.055' N, 001° 30.610' W

This is immediately outside the cove on the 2 metres Contour

What is the initial fix?

This is set on the 5 metre contour immediately outside the cove.

What are the key points of the approach?

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What's the story here?

Freshwater Bay is a small cove located 3 miles east of Needles Point and 2 miles northwest of Hanover Point on the south-western end of the Isle of Wight. It is located ¾ of a mile south of the main village of Freshwater, which serves as a small beach resort with a bustling community of shops, cafes, and restaurants. The pretty cove is only modestly developed with a prominent hotel, with a breakwater at its foot, some guest houses and an independent lifeboat building and jetty at its head. It is principally known for its stunning setting between towering white chalk cliffs, which are characteristic of the island's landscape.




Freshwater Bay is exposed to the prevailing winds with swell from the English Channel, and the cove is too shallow and tight for the vast majority of vessels to anchor in. This pushes most vessels immediately outside at the head of a five-mile southwest-facing coastal bight between Needles Point and Hanover Point, which affords little protection. As such, the bay should only be considered in placid or northerly conditions when the English Channel is free of swell. It is best thought of as a lunch stop, tide wait, or day stop location in the event of an auspicious weather window.

How to get in?

The South Around the Isle Of Wight provides an east-west tidal counter and navigational guidance for the south side of the island.

The bay is made unmistakable by the range of high and precipitous chalk cliffs that commences at the Needles and leads three miles eastward to Freshwater Bay on the west. On close approaches, the cove is made known by a noticeable private house set into an old fort on the western side of Freshwater Bay.




Likewise, the clay and sand cliffs transform from the east into precipitous white chalk cliffs a mile beyond Hanover Point and one mile before Freshwater Bay.




Tennyson's Cross, a prominent monument on Tennyson Down, is another positive identifier standing near the top of the cliffs at an elevation of 146 metres, 1.2 miles west of Freshwater Bay.

On final approaches, keep outside the 5-metre contour as a rock that dries to 1 metre LAT stands out nearly 200 metres from the cliff and just inside the 2-metre contour. Likewise, a drying bank that dries 0.4 LAT lies off the western entrance, which is the same distance out.




The initial fix is set on the 5 metre contour about 300 metres south of the cove. Steer north from here, sounding to anchor outside the mouth of the cove.




Anchor outside the mouth of the cove on the 2 metre contour. Holding in shingles and boulders is not the best. Any further in and the cove's fringing reefs begin to converge on the space.




Land by tender at the slip at the head of the bay or on the shale beach. Care is needed when landing, as the bay is shallow at low water. It has rocky ledges that project approximately 200 metres from the eastern and western sides of the cove, with the western ledge extending the furthest. The gap between the ledges, broadly east of the centre of the cove, is about 100 metres wide, leading into the slip at the head of the bay.

Why visit here?

Freshwater Bay was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Frecewater, which literally means 'river with freshwater. ' The cove received its name from the opening in the steep chalk ridges along the island's southwest coast and the ability to take on water from the 'River Yar, ' which springs from the marsh behind the main car park.




It originally ran directly into the sea here, and the combination of its constant flow with waves carved the cove from the chalky cliffs. Today, the river runs south to north across West Wight's low-lying lands to exit into the Solent at Yarmouth. Its course was altered northwards, and a seawall constructed across the bay's head created a marsh in the hollow of the bay.




Freshwater Bay remained largely uninhabited as all the historic hamlets on this part of the island were located on the high downs for security reasons. An Anglo-Saxon settlement was believed to grow beside the 'All Saints' parish church in what was then called 'Old Freshwater'. This was located on a gravel deposit beside the Yar Estuary, which was its shallowest fording point, to the north of the estate's centre at Kings Manor. By the late Anglo-Saxon period, Freshwater was a royal estate which was recorded in the Domesday Survey as 'King's Freshwater'.




The Norman Conquest brought a planned settlement to the area that was later known as School Green. It was recorded that a dilapidated windmill was known to exist at 'Old Freshwater' in 1262, but it was later replaced by a new windmill in 1300. By late medieval times, the parish of Freshwater was made up of five small hamlets called Norton, Sutton, Easton, Weston, and Middleton. All these names are still in use except for Sutton, which became known as 'Freshwater Gate' or 'The Gate'. The 'gate' referred to Freshwater Bay's opening in the chalk ridges of the island's southwest coast to afford a landing. The small, secluded Watcombe Bay, situated just west of Freshwater Bay, features a sea cave that is said to have been a favourite haunt of smugglers. Historically, tunnels and steps were constructed to connect the clifftop to the beach, including one built in the mid-19th century and another that was partially completed in the 1930s.




Little development occurred around the cove until the latter half of the 19th century. A watermill existed on the Afton side of the Freshwater Causeway from the 14th to the 16th century, and it had its millpond on the southwest side of the causeway. This had disappeared by the 19th century when the millpond was drained, turning the area into marshland. In the 18th century, it was recorded that the cove had two buildings. These were 'The Mermaid' and 'The Cabin', which were public houses. All traces of 'The Mermaid' have disappeared, and The Albion Hotel now stands on the former site of 'The Cabin'. Plumley's Hotel, overlooking Freshwater Bay on the raised ground above the western side of the cove and now called 'HF Holidays', was built in the middle of the 19th century. It was about this time that Freshwater and the cove slowly began to develop.




The most prominent addition to Freshwater Bay was the 'Freshwater Redoubt', surrounded by a dry moat that was constructed on the bay's western headland. Also known as 'Fort Redoubt', it was built between 1855 and 56 as part of Palmerston's huge programme of fortification. The build-up was a reaction to a sudden vulnerability caused by France declaring a second republic and Louis Napoleon becoming its first president as Napoleon III. Freshwater Redoubt was constructed to prevent a French landing on the beach that could then go on to attack the forts on the north side of the Island from the land. It had two batteries that were capable of taking a total of seven guns.




The Upper Battery, facing the sea, had four gun emplacements, and a separate Lower Battery with three gun emplacements covered the cove. The deep, brick-lined dry moat was cut to the north and western sides of the fort to defend against an attack from the land. Extensive tunnels and rooms were built into the chalk cliffs beneath to provide protection from mortars. The construction of the fort, along with those in Totland and the Needles, introduced this part of the island to large numbers of workers and military personnel who settled here during the construction phase.




However, the British Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson was the largest influence. He rented a house in Farringford in 1853 and bought it in 1858 as his permanent home when the area consisted of only a few farms. Lord Tennyson attracted other prominent artists and scientists, such as the pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, to the area and a building boom of quality property commenced. The purpose-built grocery store Orchard Brothers, still in existence today on the corner of Victoria Road, was built in 1865. Nelson's "Handbook to the Isle of Wight", published in 1884, then described Freshwater as a picturesque watering place with several well built, convenient and handsome villas.




By 1908, a row of Victorian houses, said to have been commissioned by Queen Victoria for returning sea captains, had been built on what was part of the Farringford estate. Easton had developed into The Square, Guyers Road, and Victoria Road and a group of fine Edwardian houses were built along the new Afton Road. With the arrival of the train, the ribbon shopping development of Avenue Road was formed, and the area was at its Victorian nadir. The bay area, however, remained largely undeveloped, but an 1862 OS map shows that a small row of villas and a coastguard station were subsequently built to the north of the fort.




The bay's most prominent features are two rocks to the east: Stag Rock, which is closest to the bay, and Mermaid Rock. These differ from historical photographs because Mermaid Rock broke off from the cliff face in 1968 during a landslide. It lies near Stag Rock, which is named after a stag that supposedly leapt onto it to escape a hunt.




However, Freshwater's main natural feature, Arch Rock, is no longer present. Arch Rock stood between the two current rocks, with its two chalk platforms being the remnants of its feet just visible above the water. Arch Rock was a significant feature of Freshwater Bay, attracting visitors and photographers who admired its beauty. This famous natural formation collapsed on 25 October 1992 due to gale-force winds and rough seas.




On November 5th, 1916, the bay was to receive an unexpected visitor that led to some alteration. This was the 1,800 tons full-rigged sailing ship, 'Carl', which was driven into the cove by a furious gale. The large ship grounded so close to the shore that her crew of twenty-five were able to save themselves by running along the bowsprit and leaping onto the lawn of 'Glenbrook at the Bay'. Despite the grounding and exposure to prevailing south-westerlies, the ship remained intact in this position for about eleven months. It was finally released when the central floor of the bay, the area between the reefs extending from either side of the bay, was enlarged by explosives in 1917. 'Carl' was towed out through the gap and back to the open sea.




Today, the bay's Victorian underpinning is still visible in its buildings and military features. A private dwelling now tops Fort Redout and is not open to the public, but its layout can be seen from the Tennyson Down above. Manned until the end of World War I, it was sold into private hands after 1928. Since then, several owners and tea rooms have been added, but it is now a private house.



The grassy, whale-backed ridge of Tennyson Down took the name of the poet who made the area famous. Rising to 147 metres (482 ft.) above sea level, Alfred Lord Tennyson used to walk out almost every day, saying that the air was worth 'sixpence a pint'. A huge granite cross commemorating the life of the poet now stands at the top of the Down. Watcombe Bay is challenging to access due to steep cliffs. It can be reached by scrambling over rocks from Freshwater Bay at low tide or by swimming around Fort Redoubt.



et in a uniquely beautiful and uplifting landscape, Freshwater Bay has been a popular destination for walkers and tourists since Victorian times. It remains just as magical for passing sailors should an auspicious weather window present itself. It is well worth coming ashore to explore the cove. The surrounding cliffs and Tennyson Down offer magnificent walks with wonderful vistas where the vessel at anchor can always be seen. For boaters with young people aboard, the promenade that lines the seafront provides a nice family beach area, albeit the beach itself is composed of shingle and well-rounded and abraded flint cobbles.

What facilities are available?

There is a choice of slipways at the head of the cove to land on. The promenade above the beach has public toilet facilities. Freshwater village, about 25 minutes’ walk from the bay, is the main shopping area that services the West of the Isle of Wight with a number of established stores and a supermarket.

Freshwater Bay has a couple of cafes and there are ample options to obtain an ice-cream on a sunny day. Many of the hotels in the bay area have established restaurants and eateries, and there are various take-aways and restaurants in the main village. The bay is served by 11 local bus services that pass through Freshwater Bay.

Any security concerns?

Never an issue known to have occurred to a vessel anchored off Freshwater Bay.

With thanks to:

Michael Harpur S/Y Whistler. Photography with thanks to Michael Harpur.