St. Boniface Down
At the eastern foot of the down, on the A3055 road between Bonchurch and Luccombe, a path descends into Bonchurch Landslips via a scenic rock cleft, the Devil's Chimney.
Wildlife
St Boniface Down is home to the largest cricket species within the British Isles, the great green bush cricket.
The area includes some unusual plant communities including acid grassland and heathland, resulting in parts of the Down being designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The gravel capping supports extensive tracts of gorse Ulex europaeus with intervening areas of heathland and acid grassland dominated by heather Calluna vulgaris, bell heather Erica cinerea, purple moor-grass Molinia caerulea, bristle bent Agrostis curtisii and locally bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus. The occurrence of heathland on deep gravel overlying chalk, the naturalised holm oak woodland and the juxtaposition of heath and chalkland vegetation are all unusual biological features in Britain.
Cultural references
St Boniface Down is also the name and was the inspiration of a 1956 work by the English composer, Trevor Duncan.
References
- ^ Bathurst, David (2012). Walking the county high points of England. Chichester: Summersdale. pp. 60–64. ISBN 978-1-84-953239-6.
- ^ "St Boniface Down, England". Peakbagger.com. Retrieved 11 January 2009.
- ^ Natural England citation sheet for Ventnor Downs SSSI
50°36′12″N 1°11′55″W / 50.60346°N 1.19873°W