Alverstone

Very close to Alverstone Mead hide and in the middle of an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is High Pines on Lower Road in Adgestone. “A lot of visitors come here to see the wildlife because this is a very rural spot,” said owner Nick Skinner. Easy access to bridleways, footpaths and cycle paths make this an ideal location for walkers and cyclists or alternatively you can relax on the nearby sandy beaches.

Nearby are many local attractions such as the Roman Villa, Garlic Farm and Adgestone Vineyard. Sandown and Shanklin Golf Club with its challenging County Championship course is a short distance away. There are just two large first floor double guest rooms, both redecorated for 2012.

Newtown

Youngwoods Farm on Whitehouse Road is between Porchfield and Newtown and has its own nature reserve of 83 acres too. “In April and may we have swathes of green winged and southern marsh orchids and all manner of wildlife,” said owner Judith Shanks.  It is a wonderful base for artists, bird watchers, cyclists and walkers and has views over meadows and ancient oak trees to the downs, the West Wight and across the Solent as far as Lymington.

The Island stone farmhouse was first mentioned in records in the thirteenth century, when the area was all forested, and it was rebuilt in the eighteenth century. Chickens and sheep are kept around the farmhouse, barns and fields and there is a resident barn owl. Stabling for guest’s horses can be provided if required .

Brading

Oaklands House is right on the edge of Brading Haven RSPB reserve and at the foot of Brading Downs. You could even leave the car at home as it is just a short walk from Brading Station too – see www.trainline.co.uk. This large B&B has 10 en-suite air conditioned bedrooms and offers bed and continental buffet breakfast to adults only. All bedrooms feature an LCD TV with DVD player, an iPod dock, a silent refrigerator and a personal safe. Other facilities include a heated swimming pool, petanque, car parking, licensed bar, free Wi-Fi and a 24 hour honesty bar. Safe cycle and golf club storage is also available. Oaklands House is non-smoking.

Afton

Frenchman’s Cove is set in an acre of secluded grounds amidst National Trust downland, on the old road towards the Needles. Nestling beneath Tennyson Down, not far from the magnificent cliffs towering above `Frenchman’s Hole’, it has splendid country and Solent views and is one of the most westerly guest houses on the Island. The house has eight bedrooms and two family suites and all have rural aspects or sea views.

Wildlife such as badgers, foxes and rabbits frequent the acre of land around the house and a buzzard nests behind the coachhouse. For that feeling of being on top of the world, try the walk across the Downs to the tip of the headland for breathtaking views of the Needles and the sweep of the Dorset coastline.

Getting in Amongst Nature

Just up the road from Afton Marsh Local Nature Reserve and in amongst the apple trees of Afton Park Apple Farm sit The Really Green Holiday Company’s beautiful yurts. There are five 16ft fully furnished cream canvas yurts available to hire for self-catering or bed and breakfast holidays from April 1^st. Each yurt sleeps up to five people containing a double bed (including one with a four poster), a double futon or day bed and a single camp bed if required and every yurt has its own outdoor cooking and seating area. There is also the ‘Dome’, a large undercover tented area, providing weather-proof cooking, eating and seating facilities and a communal area for guests to mingle or you can take breakfast and other meals at Afton Apple Farm’s café. There is a solar/wood burner fuelled shower and compost toilets. This is an ideal base from which to discover the wildlife and beauty of the West Wight, whilst sampling a green way of living.

Adgestone Fizz

Award winning bubbles produced from the vines on the south facing slopes of the chalk downs. It’s likely that the Romans were making wine from grapes grown here but we’re not sure if they knew how to produce Champagne. You can have Island-produced sparkling wine with your Easter Sunday feast if you get over to Adgestone Vineyard.

Chocolate Island Eggs

Eggs of the chocolate variety are produced over at Chocolate Island in Godshill and you can see them being made in the chocolate factory to the rear of the shop. Milk, white and plain chocolate encrusted with sweeties, fudge, nuts and fruit drip from the shelves and there are filled chocolates of every flavour you can imagine. Orange, pink (strawberry) and green (lemon) flavoured chocolates are popular with kids and along with eggs there are loads of other ideas for Easter presents for every age of chocolate lover.

Brownrigg Turkeys, Geese, Ducks and Chickens

Fresh turkeys that you pick up from the farm where they’ve been reared are on offer from Brownrigg Poultry although you could opt for a goose or a duck or a free range chicken instead as they raise them too. Drive up the lane to Sheepwash Farm, just outside Whitwell, and you can pick up your free range turkey on Easter Saturday, although it is advisable to book one first as they are snapped up quickly.

Mottistone Manor Farmshop Leg of Lamb

If you would rather opt for a fresh leg of lamb from the farm where it has been reared, try Mottistone Manor Farm shop which is open Wednesday to Sunday from  11am till 5pm. This is a picturesque part of the Island and you’re likely to see the farm’s lambs out in the fields. Reared on the green, green grass overlooking the sea, some people swear that they can taste the salty air in the tender meat.

Isle of Wight Asparagus

Unlike the rest of the country, the Isle of Wight asparagus season runs from mid-March to mid-June, due to the higher than average sunlight hours. Freshly plucked from the fields around the fertile Arreton Valley, it even featured on the menu for the Royal Wedding last April so it’s fit for a (future) king. Isle of Wight asparagus is now available from Island farms shops.

The 43-year old vineyard is the oldest in Britain although it is likely that the Romans, who built the villa just below this south-facing slope of Brading Downs, would have been growing grapes here almost 2000 years ago.

It is also possibly the only vineyard that plays Radio four to its vines at high volume. Apparently this helps to deter the birds from the ripening crop!

Chalky soil and the Island’s sunny climate made this an ideal spot to start wine production back in the late 1960s. Now the vineyard produces six different wines: two reds, two whites, and a sparkling white and rose.

Alan and Gill Stockman took over Adgestone 15 years ago and built the visitors’ centre, the café and the shop shortly after their arrival. You can tour the cellars to see the wine being made and then taste the wines, or opt to buy a bottle or two to have with Italian style antipasto or Greek mezze in the café.

You might like to have a bottle of Adgestone wine especially personalized as a gift or for a special occasion. Labels can be produced while you wait, or you might opt to order several crates of personalized wine for a wedding.

In the shop you can also purchase Godshill Cider, Goddards Ales, Tomato Stall pickles and relishes and other Island produced goodies, along with wine related items such as corkscrews and coasters.

Murals on the wall of the café are very Meditteranean as is the yellow and blue colour scheme. Alan previously owned Café Renoir in Kentish Town, London and brought the same theme with him to the cafe, which is ideally suited to the wine tasting going on within, and the menu features dishes that complement the evaluation of wine admirably.

Outside on the terrace you can watch the harvest while you take morning coffee, lunch or afternoon tea. Harvesting runs mid September through to mid October. Their cream teas have been recommended by the AA Guide to the Best Cream Teas of Southern England.

Visitors are also permitted to walk up though the vineyard and the view from the top is quite stunning.

To find the vineyard you take the upper Adgestone Road that turns off from the Downs Road near Brading, or you can reach it from the Newport to Sandown Road, at the mini roundabout at Winford. An undulating pretty country road, this is part of the ‘quiet’ Adgestone Road and care is needed on the often high sided narrow lane.

Adgestone is open from 10am till 5.30pm daily until the New Year when it closes for the month of January. Last orders for food are at 4.45pm.