Walking and hiking on the Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a true walker’s paradise. As one of the UK’s most beautiful places to enjoy the outdoors, we welcome thousands of walkers to the Island year after year.

Better bring your boots; because we have more than 500 miles of public footpaths – not bad for a place that’s only 23 miles by 13 in size.

Because we are an island you can walk round the entire coast, taking anything from 24 hours (if you are super-fit, want to walk 24/7 and are a little bit bonkers) to a whole week, but four or five days is the amount of time most experts think you need to budget for.

The island’s annual walking festival is one of the best-loved in the UK and with good reason – the local authority takes walking seriously and has put together some amazing trails for visitors.

Go walking with dinosaurs – we are one of Europe’s top dinosaur discovery spots, or with gangsters – the Jail Trail takes you to Parkhurst Prison, former home to the notorious Kray Twins, as well as Carisbrooke Castle, in which King Charles 1 was incarcerated before being sentenced to death.

Savour some spectacular views and learn more about the story of the real War Horse on the Warrior Trail, a six-mile circular walk which can be cycled, walked or, very appropriately, ridden on horseback.

It celebrates General Jack Seely and his steed, Warrior, dubbed the ‘horse the Germans could not kill’ after he survived some of the First World War’s bloodiest conflicts.

The trail follows much of the route where Warrior was once exercised, running from Carisbrooke Castle to the beach at Brook Bay, where he learned to confront the dangers of battle in the surf there.

The Tennyson Trail is one of the island’s best-loved walks, a 14-miler from Carisbrooke to The Needles and partly follows the route of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s daily stroll, which inspired some of his best-loved poems.

There are plenty of trails to be discovered with our handy Wightlink Explorer tool – find your route today.