[1] It is reached from a car park on the A3055 coastal road, where a stream running parallel to the cliff takes a right-angled bend to descend to the beach.

As the beach is a popular fishing site, Local fisherman have constructed a new flight of stairs by carving steps down through the rock, although this is not recommended.

Despite the old steps forming part of a footpath and legal Right of Way (footpath C34, Chale Parish), the Isle of Wight Council refused to repair them, stating that "major structural works at great expense would be required to make the path safe for use with no guarantee that such works would be a permanent solution."

Geologically the cliffs here belong to the Wealden supergroup and were deposited in a large scale meandering river and floodplain facies about 150 million years ago.

These troughs are characteristic of infilled stream channels caused by the deposition of the high energy carried material and organisms.