Compton Bay and Down — Attraction in Freshwater

An absolutely beautiful Area Of Natural Beauty (AONB). Very popular for islanders, tourists and surfers. There is plenty of parking as shown in my drone photos. Situated along the Military Road which is a beautiful drive along the coastline. The yellow fields of rapeseed in the late spring/early summer is nicely contrasted with the white cliffs around Freshwater and Tennison Downs in the background. There is no access down to the beach for disabled people, especially those in wheelchairs, but it is lovely to sit on the clifftop. Please be aware that the cliffs are definitely not suitable for climbing, as again in the photos, they are crumbling and falling on a very regular basis. There are toilets for able and disabled people. The parking isn't free, as the area is owned by the National Trust, but it doesn't cost a fortune. There is always an ice-cream van present and that is run by Steve. I think it's only Christmas Day that he doesn't work so you're almost always guaranteed of an ice-cream or burger/hotdog. One final thing to mention is that there are no rubbish bins on the site (no idea why) so please take it all home with you. The wildlife (which is quite vast, both inland and sea) do not appreciate getting their heads stuck in your waste, ok I'm talking about a small minority of people and I don't mean to sound rude. There ends the short essay of my favourite place...

National Trust have transformed the car parking area and toilet facilities recently and they are much improved. Access to the beach is by maintained wooden steps, but remember that the cliffs are unstable and even a small rock fall can be serious... but if you keep your distance from the cliff and keep your eyes down you could find gold (fools gold) fossilised wood which has iron pyrite on it, there are also fossil sea sponges and urchins (in flint), coprolite (fossilised poop 💩), bone, and what Compton is famous for... footprint casts from large therapod dinosaurs like Iguanadon, meat eating dinosaurs that hunted the Iguanadon, and others that may come out of the rock. You can book a guided fossil walk, these are conducted by Wight Coast Fossils and the team are super knowledgeable and can really teach you something, even if you've looked and found nothing before, you'll be surprised what...

Ran by the national trust this place was amazing.

Plenty of parking (but im off season), the parking cost £4 for 4x hours. There was a national trust van selling food, drinks and ice creams but was only operating limited hours..... after they left a ice cream van took over ! Lol.

Free toilets (novelty on the island) which was clean and modern.

Steep steps to climb down so if you have mobility issues it probably isn't suitable, if you have a dog turn left, tide comes in quicker lol, if not I'd go right as that end of the beach looked nicer (a lot of seaweed just left of the steps).

Best place I've been for body boarding and I've been Newquay lol, you didn't have to wait long to catch a big wave.

Supposed to be a fossil beach but didn't find any..... did find a dog fish sack though 🤔

Definitely would...