New Island appears near Hurst Castle

A recent article by Roz Waters in the Advertiser & Times, has given sailors' a warning over submerged 'shingle island' near Hurst Castle.

Part of the article reads: 

Local sailors are facing a fresh hurdle in the Solent with the emergence near Keyhaven of a shingle bank which has been dubbed “Lentune Island”.

The shingle bar, to the east side of Hurst Spit, is fully submerged at high tide and is not accurately shown on nautical charts – prompting a warning from the RNLI.

A spokesperson for the RNLI revealed that Lymington lifeboat station manager Alastair Mackay and his team have been watching the progress of the shingle bar for some time.

“We have circulated several videos taken by the crew from the sea and the shore amongst the rest of the RNLI team at Lymington and other boat users,” said the spokesperson.

“We have also passed them on to Solent coastguard to let them know what is happening.”

The rescue organisation is warning that after navigating eastwards around the shallow bar off Hurst Castle known as The Trap, sailors should be extra careful if they intend to head towards Keyhaven as the new shingle bar extends east of Hurst Spit in an area that many boaters would have previously used to turn northwards towards Keyhaven.

To read the full A&T article, please click here.

This change has thrown up a further observation by a Keyhaven local:

"Regular visitors will be familiar with the “Lentune Island” feature as an above-high-water extension of the Spit, previously dubbed Castle Point, and still clearly visible on Google Maps satellite images.

Mysteriously, once English Heritage’s contractors had completed the replenishment of the areas on the seaward side of the castle’s east wing with shingle, Castle Point had become an island, submerged at high tide.

Visitors since the departure of the contractors may also have noted the reduction in size of the stockpile of dressed granite blocks salvaged (and numbered) from the collapsed wall of the castle’s east wing in an earlier phase of work. The attached photographs show dressed granite blocks being used to shore up the chevron timber groynes in front of the east wing before shingle replenishment."

If anyone has any further thoughts, please let me know at:

david@milfordonsea.org.