Steephill Cove is said to be the prettiest place on the Isle of Wight and is near to the seaside town of Ventnor. An unspoilt little fishing cove that has a lovely sandy beach and lies among other coves that were well known for smuggling There is no access by road and this adds to the solitary feeling one gets here, but parking is only a few minutes away in the Botanical Gardens or the private car park above the Cove itself.

There are not the usual seaside attractions here, no fun fairs, slot machines, burger bars but you can get the freshest crab and lobster here which can be sampled at the Boathouse Restaurant which overlooks the beach. Children love the place for the rock pools and you can sit and watch the fishermen bringing in the daily catch.

For the walker there are some lovely coastal walks around the area and to the north is the Botanical Gardens of Ventnor with rare plants from worldwide places that have survived here in the natural microclimate which is sheltered from the north by the Downs, Ventnor itself is a ten minute walk away and here can be found shopping and more restaurants, and some great pubs such as the Spyglass Inn.

Sketch of Steephill Farm		Sketch of Steephill Cove
Steephill Castle

There is a castellated mansion at Steephill which was built by John Hambrough in 1831 and it was he who also built the parish church and a parsonage as well as the National School. But in 1860 he left the island to live on the mainland.

In 1874 on the 2nd August a large party of foreign royalty and such forth that included Elizabeth, the Empress of Austria and her sister the former Queen of Naples, as well as  the Austrian Ambassador. They brought with them a large contingent of maids, butlers,  French and Hungarian chefs, to Ventnor which created a great to-do for the islanders themselves as they had never seen such a colourful group of people, The Austrian Ambassador had rented Steephill  Mansion for them as it had views over the sea.

But before this main party arrived great activity took place when workmen arrived to make some considerable changes to the house, even changing the billiard room into a gymnasium and putting in new bathrooms

During their visit they drove over to Osborne House to visit Queen Victoria but the Empress turned down two invitations to dine and it is said that she said that it bored her and she thought that Victoria's people were rather stuffy. Victoria in return said that the Empress may be beautiful but she did not have any sense of royal duty. At the time Victoria was still in widow's clothing and Valerie was aghast and said she had never seen such a stout lady as her mother regularly dieted and managed to retain her slim figure.

Elizabeth journeyed to London and walked around without being recognised as she was incognito and in the company of the Austrian Ambassador, they then went on to Melton and stayed at Belvoir castle which was in the hands of the Duke of Rutland and met Lord Spencer while there.

They later returned to Steephill and the Castle Club arranged a race meeting in their honour and the Empress requested that a London jeweller designed a cup for the winner of the main race.  The Imperial Cup was won by a local farmer called Weeks who rode the winner "Beauty" owned by a Mr Bungay and the trophy was engraved