Places to Visit in Brading
Brading Down
The designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Brading Down provides breathtaking views across the east of the island and offers an ideal habitat for plants and animals, particularly butterflies. The Countryside Management Section of the Isle of Wight Council looks after this area of chalk downland. From many years, the down was left ungrazed which allowed hawthorn and gorse to encroach upon this wildflower rich grassland and without control, would have smothered the down eventually. Grazing was reintroduced after the fences were reinstated in 1986 and since then the site has been grazed by both sheep and cattle.
Brading Down has the finest surviving ancient field system on the Island
and has Scheduled Ancient Monument status. This is likely to be of late
Iron Age or Roman date and highlights the last time the fields were ploughed.