Western Yar

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This article is about the River Yar in the western part of the Isle of Wight.. For other Yars, including the other River Yar on the Isle of Wight, see Yar (disambiguation).

The River Yar on the Isle of Wight, England, rises near the beach at Freshwater Bay, on the south coast of the island and flows only a few miles north to Yarmouth, on the north coast, where it meets the Solent. Most of the river is a tidal estuary. Its headwaters have been truncated by erosion of the south coast.

The Yar estuary is part of the Isle of Wight’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) which stretches from Afton Marsh Local Nature Reserve to Yarmouth. The estuary consists of a number of important habitats, including saltmarsh, reedbeds, mud flats and sand dunes, and these in turn host a rich abundance of wildlife, particularly over-wintering wildfowl and waders.

The Yar estuary is also part of a 132.4 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest on the Isle of Wight, notified in 1977. In addition its upper reaches were designated as an SSSI in 1951 under the name Freshwater Marshes.

The Yar is one of two rivers of that name on the Isle of Wight. It is referred to as the Western Yar if it is necessary to distinguish between them.