Hurst Castle is a favourite of ours for a sunshine walk, it is a very substantial spit of land that acts as a sea defence for the western solent.
Rather a substantial spit
We’ve been there on windy days before and had great fun when it has been too windy to go sailing!!
Too windy for sailing!
But today we thought it needed some investigation as we knew how bad the Valentines day storm had been.
Quite incredible what has happened to it, it is certainly going to take quite some time (and a lot of JCBs) to get it back to its former state…
Waves have removed massive chunks of the spit
And the bomb disposal team did a good job removing some more of it as they discharged some WW2 bombs that arrived on the beach…
Doesn’t look quite the same – a lot narrower and lower and in many places the water has completely breached the spit and washed much of the shingle away
The level of the bank on the left is normally the footpath that goes right out to the castle
I have to say – it was much easier to walk along in its current state, with much of the shingle washed away!
Stunning day – it felt like Spring!
These are some beautiful photos and it sounds like a lovely time.
It took me a while to figure out where you were. When I read “Hurst Castle,” the first thing I thought of was the Hurst Castle that was built by William Randolph Hearst in San Simeon, CA, USA in 1919.
Your description didn’t seem to match that so I did a search and found out about Henry VIII’s Device Fort built at the end of a long shingle spit at the west end of the Solent to guard the approaches to Southampton, England.
So thank you for widening my experience.
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Now I didn’t know it dated back to Tudor times!! Thank you!! The building fared better than the shingle spit!!
I love the photo of you enjoying the wind on another windy day but I bet you were glad not to be there Friday. The power of nature is incredible – I hope they repair the damage before it becomes irreparable.
I think we were lucky that there wasn’t more lose of life. My heart goes out to the two people that were lost and of course their family and friends.
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That other windy day was just 50kts and stopped us sailing! Doubling that was what did the damage…. The Solent is a busy shipping channel too so goodness knows what that looks like now all the shingle has moved… Terrible tragedies I know, horrid
What a wonderful day to enjoy the weather and blue skies, although that WWII bomb is a little scary to walk up to on your hike! Nice visiting your neck of the woods!
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I’ve never seen an explosion before… Glad I was expecting it…
Hi Anna… I’ve arrived in Cornwall this afternoon and it is fascinating to see and hear about the storm. We are on the Lizard peninsula, close to many of the places that were shown on the news (eg. just 6 miles from Porthleven). It’s been drizzly today, but not too bad. There are plenty of signs of the floods… but, to be honest, it’s not as bad as I expected.
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Do try and walk down to rinsey cliff if you get a change, hope you get some fine days
Lovely walk along the coast to Poldhu (sp?) today, passing the site where Marconi did the first trans-Atlantic wireless communication… found a great beach hut and enjoyed the blue skies and waves crashing against the rocks. Who’d have thought it was February?! Was in just a polo shirt at one point…
Awesome pictures Anna! It’s crazy to think about the destruction nature can have but it just goes to show that despite the amount of preparation we all put in, there is still only going to be one winner! We just have to be as prepared as possible and realize that during those real harsh weather conditions we must wait it out and hope for the best.
Here in the States we have been bombarded with large amounts of snow, though in Arkansas we pretty much got away with just a couple of inches (unlike the East coast which was under a deluge of snow for the past few weeks!). Hopefully we are all past the worst of the winter conditions and can look forward to a pleasant Spring and Summer!
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This years weather on both sides of the Atlantic isn’t stuff that can be planned for, just incredible…