Luccombe Bay
Set on the east coast of the Isle of Wight Luccombe Bay is approximately halfway between Shanklin and Ventnor. Despite this, the main road between these two coastal towns runs some way inland and the only lane down to the bay is private. There is however a footpath that runs down to Luccombe Chine where you can just about scramble down an old landslip onto the beach (although more recent landslips may have made this more difficult).
On a sunny, summer’s morning, when the tide is low it is definitely worth making the effort. You will more than likely have this wide stretch of sand to yourself. The sandstone cliffs to the back of the beach have a good covering of vegetation giving the beach something of an undiscovered feel.
Just by Luccombe Chine is a cave which was used by smugglers in days of old. In fact the Customs and Excise set up a watchtower in the nearby Luccombe Chine House to keep an eye on such activities.
Type of beach
Sand & rock
Lifeguard service
No
Dogs friendly beach?
Dogs allowed
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Luccombe Bay Reviews
Lovely Beach, walk from Shanklin at low tide
Andrew Milton
Sep 14th 2020The Coastal Path is closed but you can step round the gate, be warned this is not for the faint-hearted. At points the path structure disappears entirely although the way is clear. Somebody has put ropes down the trickier sections so if you are fit it won’t be a problem. However, this gets you down to a landslip above a 5 metre cliff. This last bit is do able if you go down backwards and are prepared to get muddy. Coming up would be a different story which i s why I didn’t complete this route. There is another rope down on to the beach but quite far over and I’m not sure how you get across to it. So I went back up but not before noticing that there were about ten people on the beach. They’d walked along from Shanklin, which is by far the easiest way. At low tide there’s about 100m between the cliffs and the sea. I’d like to go again as it is lovely with a waterfall coming down from Luccombe Chine. There is parking at the top of Shanklin Chine and a steep set of steps, then it’s about a mile walk along the beach to Luccombe Bay. I thoroughly recommend a visit.
No stars for no access
Sarah lre
Aug 22nd 2019Coastal path is closed no knowledge of this until you reach the path down the beach walked all the way from shanklin to find no access shame sounds lovely.