2–2½ miles per hour for your walk, without prolonged stops. Reckon on walking a little slower after rain when conditions may be heavy or a little greasy underfoot. When accompanied by children or inexperienced walkers – or indeed, when walking in a group – allow extra time, especially if there are stiles to cross.
Leaving the route of the South Downs Way, this stile takes the walker onto Salt Hill (Walk 34)
Public Transport and Car Parking
Several railway companies operate lines that run in the vicinity of the South Downs National Park, and where specific walks may be accessed by train, a note of the nearest station is given. The same goes for bus services, but it would not be practical to give details of times – or even the frequency of services (bus or train) – since these are likely to change during the period this guidebook is in print.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT INFORMATION
Southern Railways operate services from London Victoria to Brighton, Chichester, Eastbourne, Lewes, and Portsmouth
South West Trains operate services from London to Brighton and Portsmouth
First Capital Connect operate between Brighton and Bedford
First Greater Western have a twice daily service between Brighton and Cardiff
National Rail Enquiries tel 08457 484950 (24 hour service) www.nationalrail.co.uk
Traveline Bus Service tel 0870 608 2608 www.traveline.org.uk
National Express Coaches tel 08705 808080 www.nationalexpress.co.uk
See also www.buses.co.uk
The dedicated South Downs website www.southdowns.gov.uk/enjoy/plan-a-visit/getting-around also provides valuable public transport information.
The location, including grid reference, of a suitable car park is included at the beginning of each walk should you use your own transport to reach the start of a walk. However, where there is no official parking facility available, please park sensibly and with consideration for local residents and farm vehicles, making sure you do not cause an obstruction. If you park near a church, please avoid service times. Do not leave valuables in your vehicle, and be sure to lock it before setting out on your walk.
Where to Stay
A wide range of accommodation is available throughout the South Downs National Park, ranging from a handful of campsites, YHA hostels, camping barns and independent hostels, to privately owned B&Bs, pubs with rooms, and a variety of hotels. The South Downs website www.nationaltrail.co.uk/south-downs-way/plan provides details and is recommended. For more specific information about youth hostels, their location and facilities, please see Appendix A for the address of the YHA national office. Camping barns and independent hostels that cater for groups, families and individuals, are listed in the Handbook of Independent Hostels UK published by The Backpackers Press, or go to www.independenthostelguide.co.uk.
The Country Code
1 Enjoy the countryside and respect its life and work
2 Guard against all risk of fire
3 Fasten all gates
4 Keep dogs under close control
5 Keep to public paths across farmland
6 Use gates and stiles to cross fences, hedges and walls
7 Leave livestock, crops and machinery alone
8 Take litter home
9 Help to keep all water clean
10 Protect wildlife, plants and trees
11 Take special care on country roads
12 Make no unnecessary noise.
It was Octavia Hill, that indefatigable Victorian champion of the countryside and a co-founder of the National Trust, whose words sum up the spirit of the Country Code:
‘Let the grass growing for hay be respected, let the primrose roots be left in their loveliness in the hedges, the birds unmolested and the gates shut. If those who frequented country places would consider those who live there, they would better deserve, and more often retain, the rights and privileges they enjoy.’
The very substance of the Downs is revealed in the chalk cliffs of the Seven Sisters (Walk 5)
WALK 1
Eastbourne to Birling Gap and East Dean
| Start/Finish | Dukes Drive, Eastbourne (TV 600 972) |
| Distance | 9½ miles (15km) |
| Maps | OS Explorer 123 Eastbourne & Beachy Head 1:25,000 |
| Refreshments | Refreshment kiosk at start of walk, café at Birling Gap, pub and café in East Dean |
| Access | By local bus. Dukes Drive is on B2103 |
| Parking | Streetside parking nearby |
A scenic, but quite strenuous, circular walk with some steep ascents and descents. The first half, as far as Birling Gap, is mostly clifftop walking overlooking the sea, while the second half explores downland ridges and valleys inland. Beachy Head, that icon of the Sussex coast, is a major feature in the early stages, and there’s an opportunity to make a diversion onto the foreshore to view it from below.
The walk begins at the start of the South Downs Way, where Dukes Drive makes a sharp bend near St Bede’s School at Eastbourne’s southernmost point. While the SDW actually climbs steeply up the downland slope, we take a path to the left, signed to Whitbread Hole and Cow Gap. It goes along the side of a refreshment kiosk, rises steadily then curves to the right before sloping down towards Whitbread Hole, an impressive amphitheatre (a ‘dry valley’) in which there’s a sports field.
Keeping to the seaward side of Whitbread Hole go ahead through a gap in a hedgeline, and soon come to a brief flight of descending steps at the bottom of which the path forks. Unless you plan to divert to Cow Gap and the foreshore for a dramatic view of Beachy Head, take the right branch.
Cow Gap gives access to the foreshore by way of a steep wooden ladder. At the bottom of this pick your way among rocks heading to the right (beware rockfall and incoming tides) below ever-steepening chalk cliffs, until turning a corner you gain a tremendous view of Beachy Head soaring 536ft (163m) above the surf, with the red-and-white-ringed lighthouse dwarfed below it – a there-and-back diversion from the main walk of about 1 mile (1.5km).
The
