Brambles Chine is a chine in Colwell Bay, Isle of Wight, England notable for its geology. After years of erosion, a path down to the beach near Brambles Chine was destroyed, but rebuilt in 2023. [1]
The chine is accessible from the coastal path. A slipway is where the chine bed used to be. [2]
Named from a place called Brambles on Andrew's Map of 1769, and perhaps associated with Bramblehill (1608), the origin of the name is from Lazarus Bramble, a master mariner from Yarmouth that owned the chine in 1648. The word chine is from Old English cinu (fissure, ravine). [3]
There is a self-catering holiday village and a park near the chine with the same name. [4]
It is located in Colwell Bay, near the villages of Freshwater and Totland. There is a small, unnamed copse of trees surrounding the chine. In the bay, there are two other chines: Linstone Chine to the north, and Colwell Chine to the south. [5]
The geology consists of the sands and clays of the Headon Hill Formation. [6] It was one of the areas investigated in the 17th Century by Robert Hooke. [7]