Shanklin Chine

Shanklin Chine is the Island’s oldest visitor attraction, being first opened in 1817. You walk through a tree lined gorge to the main waterfall, which is 45 feet high and then in the opposite direction the pluto point giving you a view over the coast.

‘Chine’ is a local word from Saxon in origin and now only used on the Isle of Wight and Dorset.
It means ‘a deep narrow ravine, formed by water cutting through soft sandstone leading to the sea’.

The Shanklin chine is the result of 10,000 years of formation. There are 21 chines across the island, with the Shanklin chine being the largest.

You can also see the actual pluto pipeline that was used at Shanklin Chine, on the way to pluto point, the pipeline was one of the great secret successes of the war, PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The
Ocean) was the idea of Lord Mountbatten, Britain’s Chief of Combined Operations. Oil pipelines were built under the English Channel to support Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy during the Second World War. Pipelines would reduce the need for coastal tankers, which could be hindered by bad weather, were vulnerable to air attack, and needed to be offloaded into vulnerable storage tanks ashore.

The Illuminations are switched on at dusk daily, the only down side is at this time of year it doesn’t really get dark enough to really enjoy the illuminations till you are leaving.

Your ticket gives you free return within 7 days but on a short trip you likely wouldn’t visit twice.