The Needles



The Needles is a row of three distinctive stacks of chalk that rise out of the sea off the western extremity of the Isle of Wight, UK, close to Alum Bay. The Needles Lighthouse stands at the end of the formation. Built in 1859, it has been automated since 1994.

The formation takes its name from a fourth needle-shaped pillar called Lot's Wife that collapsed in a storm in 1764. The remaining rocks are not at all needle-like, but the name has stuck.

The Needles were featured on the 2005 TV programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of Southern England.

Tourism
The Needles Pleasure Park situated at the top of the cliff is a small amusement park with a selection of shops and rides. The most famous attraction at the pleasure park is the Chairlift, which operates between the park and Alum Bay.

The Needles are inextricably linked with Alum Bay, and are a major tourist draw. Scenic boat trips operating from Alum Bay that offer close-up views of the Needles are very popular. The rocks and lighthouse have become icons of the Isle of Wight, and are featured on many of the souvenirs sold throughout the island.

However, the main tourist attractions of the headland itself are the two gun batteries, the experimental rocket testing station, and the four Coastguard cottages owned by the National Trust and let as holiday homes.

The site is on tour bus routes and hiking trails.

Military use
The Needles were a site of a long standing artillery battery, from the 1860s to 1954, which was eventually decommissioned.

A nearby site on High Down was employed in the testing of rockets for the British ICBM programme. The headland at High Down was used for Black Knight and Black Arrow rocket engine tests from 1956–71. During the peak of activity in the early 1960s some 240 people worked at the complex, while the rockets were built in nearby East Cowes. These rockets were later used to launch the Prospero X-3 satellite. The site is now owned by the National Trust, and is open to the public. Concrete installations remain, but the buildings that were less durable have either been demolished or were torn down by the elements.

In 1982, HRH Prince Charles officially opened the restored Needles Old Battery facility. Underground rocket testing rooms are currently being restored for exhibition. The first phase of restoration was completed in 2004.

Access
The batteries are accessible by car, foot, bicycle, and bus. Though there is a paved road up to The Old and The New batteries, access is on foot, from a car park. The battery site becomes dangerous in high winds and is closed to the public in winds above force 8.

In the Spring and Summer, the Southern Vectis bus company sends open-top buses along a route called "The Needles Tour". This route approaches the Battery along the cliff edge, using a road reserved for bus traffic. The Needles Tour also has stops in Alum Bay, Totland, Colwell Bay, Fort Victoria, Yarmouth, and Freshwater Bay. The Needles Tour buses are the only vehicles allowed on the road from Alum Bay, apart from those owned by National Trust staff or, by prior appointment, vehicles transporting disabled visitors. This is because the single track road's position close to the cliff edge is considered dangerous for multiple car use.

The Isle of Wight Coast Path has its westernmost point at the Coastguard Cottages.

Geology
The Needles' pointed shape is a result of their unusual geology. The strata have been so heavily folded during the Alpine Orogeny that the chalk is near vertical. This chalk outcrop runs through the centre of the Island from Culver Cliff in the east to the Needles in the west, and then continues under the sea to the Isle of Purbeck, forming Ballard Cliff (near Swanage), Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door. It is also believed that The Needles were once connected to Old Harry Rocks (east of Studland and north of Swanage) where these strata lines moving from horizontal to near vertical can be seen from the sea.

Just off the end of the Needles formation is the Shingles, a shifting shoal of pebbles just beneath the waves. The Shingles is approximately three miles in length. Many ships have been wrecked on the Shingles.

Controversy
Some controversy has been raised about the actual shape of the "Lot's Wife" stone column, that allegedly collapsed in 1764. A drawing of The Needles by Dutch landscape artist Lambert Doomer (1624–1700) made in 1646 depicts a rock formation with much stouter shape than that shown in Isaac Taylor's 1759 "one inch" map of Hampshire. The Doomer etching is contained in Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem (published ca. 1662), which is in the Austrian National Library in Vienna. It is not clear from these drawings what transpired.

General information

 * Needles and Alum Bay tourist website
 * Needles Battery tourist website
 * National Trust on The Needles Old Battery

Pictures and video

 * Page 1- The Needles, Steve Shafleet, pictures of the Needles, from "Alum Bay and the Needles", Isle of Wight Historic Postcards, 24 June 2007.
 * Pictures of the Needles Rocket Test Site
 * Video of Microlight flight over the needles