Walpen Chine
Walpen Chine is a chine, which is to say a narrow cleft in the cliff, on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, found in the cliff to the west of the village of Chale. It is also known as Old Walpen Chine, as the nameless stream which once ran to the sea through this cleft has moved and formed a new cut down through the cliff, in New Walpen Chine.
This is a sandy coastal ravine, one of a number of such chines on the island created by stream erosion of soft Cretaceous rocks. Walpen Chine leads from a clifftop 190 feet high to a knickpoint approximately halfway down the cliff face above Chale Bay beach.
The chine is one of three that have been eroded by a small unnamed brook that descends from Chale that drains rainwater from the west side of St Catherine's Hill. The other two chines are Ladder Chine and New Walpen Chine. The brook initially wound its way to the cliff face and its descent over the edge created Ladder Chine. As the cliff eroded, the brook found a shorter path to the sea and started creating Walpen Chine to the east of Ladder chine. As the cliff eroded further, the brook moved east again and is currently eroding New Chine.
Ladder and Walpen Chines are both now dry and in Walpen Chine the river bed can be seen heading back uphill to the cliff edge.
The Isle of Wight Coastal Path runs along at the top of the cliff above the chine.
Location
- Location map: 50°35’54"N, 1°20’2"W