The Needles

The Needles are the last of a chalk ridge that once ran unbroken to the Dorset coast, three stacks standing in a line off the western point of the island with a red-banded lighthouse of 1859 on the seaward end, built after a fourth and taller stack, a needle-shaped pinnacle that gave the group its name, collapsed in 1764. The cliffs at Alum Bay behind are banded in coloured sands, iron and other minerals staining them red, yellow and grey, and Victorian visitors bought them layered in glass ornaments, a trade that continues. Above the stacks, the Needles Old Battery of 1862 and the New Battery were later used as a secret test site for the Black Knight and Black Arrow rockets in the 1950s and 1960s, Britain's only orbital launch programme.

What you actually see

• The three stacks - chalk pinnacles in a line with an 1859 lighthouse.
• The coloured sands - banded mineral cliffs at Alum Bay.
• The rocket site - the New Battery where Black Arrow engines were tested.
• The Old Battery - a Victorian fort with a tunnel to a searchlight position.

When to go

April to October, when the chairlift, boat trips and batteries operate; the site closes substantially in winter. Clear days show the stacks properly, and the headland is very exposed to wind.

Honest expectations

Reaching the island requires a ferry, which is expensive for a car. The Alum Bay complex at the top is a commercial pleasure park with amusements and gift shops that surprises people expecting a nature site. The chairlift closes in wind and the alternative is a steep path.

Nearby

Alum Bay is at the foot; Yarmouth and Freshwater lie east along the coast.