Crime And Punishment

A bit of Channel hopping today…we’re back on the Isle of Wight to visit St Catherine's Oratory, a tall medieval lighthouse.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the "Pepper Pot" (as it's affectionately known), perched some 750ft above the most southerly point of the island, is a rocket. Dating from around 1328, it was erected by Walter de Godeton as an act of penance for plundering wine from the wreck of St. Marie of Bayonne in Chale Bay. 

View from the "Pepper Pot"

Chale Bay

Predated by the Roman lighthouse at Dover, the Oratory is the second-oldest lighthouse in Britain and to this day serves as a seamark. Fires lit in the roof of the tower would glow through each of the eight beacon slits to warn shipping away from the dangerous shore below. Intriguingly, the lighthouse tower is octagonal, but with a square interior.

Interior view

On the walk up to the Oratory, we had to negotiate a field of cows...

and bulls!

There is a modern St Catherine's lighthouse...not quite as interesting as the medieval version though!