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Whitecliff Bay is a sandy bay near Foreland which is the easternmost point of the Isle of Wight, England about 2 miles south-west of Bembridge and just to the north of Culver Down. It is a tourist site (the location of a holiday park), has a popular beach with two hundred metres of sand and shingle, and minimal facilities including 2 cafes. Access is limited and only possible down two steeply sloping concrete tracks.
Contents
It is of geological interest, being part of the Whitecliff Bay And Bembridge Ledges SSSI.
GeologyEdit
Whitecliff Bay, although lesser known than Alum Bay, has nearly identical geology to the latter, being a coastal section of the same strata which run east-west across the island. It displays a classic sequence of fossil-bearing Eocene beds of soft sands and clays, separated by an unconformity from the underlying Cretaceous Chalk Formation forming the headland of Culver Down to its south. Due to geological folding of the Alpine orogeny, the strata in the main section of the Bay are vertical, with younger rocks to the north.
HistoryEdit
Whitecliff Bay was one of the landing points for the French invasion of the Isle of Wight (1545).