Monks Bay is a charming spot, situated below the village of Bonchurch. It is also a good site for local flora and has an attractive row of houses which look out to sea. To the back of the beach is a concrete esplanade beyond which are heavily vegetated cliffs. It's a quiet beach that is still used today for lobster and crab fishing.
The beach itself is a mix of sand and shingle above the high tide line, but when the tide goes out a large area of sand is revealed. A series of rock breakwaters were installed in the early 1990s along the beach, to keep the sand where it belongs. This consists of 25,000 tons of Norwegian granite, along with 40,000 cubic metres of sand and shingle to prevent erosion by the sea.
DOGS ALLOWED: Yes, all year round
TOILETS: Yes, to the right of the houses near the beach
OTHER AMENITIES: The Seapot Cafe is a 15 minute walk along the esplanade towards Ventnor
LIFEGUARDS: No
ACCESS ON FOOT: Walk down Shore Road from Bonchurch Village, via a footpath that starts by the Old Church in Bonchurch, or along the concrete revetment from Ventnor.
ACCESS BY CAR: The nearest carpark is Shore Road Carpark PO38 1RN, which is a 5 minute, sloping walk to the beach.
AS WITH ALL BAYS ON THE SOUTH OF THE WIGHT, CARE MUST BE TAKEN DUE TO UNSTABLE CLIFFS. LANDSLIPS ARE NOT UNCOMMON IN THIS AREA.
HISTORY
The name refers to the French monks from Lyra Abbey in Normandy, who would land here when they made their annual pilgrimage from France in the 1100s. Monks Bay is also thought to have been popular with Charles Dickens and his family, during their summer vacations at Winterbourne Villa in Bonchurch.
The Battle of Bonchurch was fought in Monks Bay in July 1545. It was one of three locations where 2,000 French troops landed on the Isle of Wight coast. The English won and the battle prevented the French from seizing the island as its own.
The area was also notable as a location for smuggling rings, where contraband would be landed here and then transported inland.
In 1871, the Underley, a 1,292-ton iron-hulled sailing ship, ran around in a strong gale at the point between Monk's Bay and Steel Bay. On a voyage from London to Melbourne she had thirty passengers and cargo on board. The ship was lost but all passengers and crew were saved, bar one – a steward who re-boarded the ship to rescue his pet bird and was sadly washed overboard as it broke apart. Fragments of the wreck can still be seen by divers in the area when a gale has shifted the sands.
