Christmas Eve 1839

Christmas Eve 1839 marks the sudden creation of the Undercliff, a coastal landscape shaped by a massive landslip. The disaster displaced eight million tonnes of soil towards the sea, carrying familiar features with it; in the years that followed, the scar of the collapse developed into a seven-mile stretch of damp, overgrown terrain.

The Landslip

On Christmas Eve 1839, the ground gave way and left a huge chasm. Sheep, rabbits, a tea room, and an area known as Goat Island were taken in the slide. A field of wheat slipped intact and was harvested the following summer, a striking contrast to the other losses: the landscape shifted, but that field continued to yield a crop.

A Landscape Remade

Left alone after the collapse, the Undercliff gradually naturalized into a dense growth of ferns, ivy, and trees. The land’s change was lasting: plants grew freely into twisted forms, and the former landslip became a damp, enclosed coastal woodland rather than a site restored to its earlier shape.

The Route Through the Undercliff

The account places the landslip in the landscape encountered by walkers entering the Undercliff from the coast. Its seven miles of naturalized terrain contain a path that winds for eight miles before emerging into open light. The route makes the consequences of Christmas Eve 1839 tangible in the present: the collapse altered the land, and the path now follows through that altered ground.