Plants and Wildlife of the Downs
Public Transport and Car Parking
1 Eastbourne to Birling Gap and East Dean (9½ miles)
2 Butts Brow to Jevington and Friston (7 miles)
3 Jevington to Friston Forest and the Long Man (7½ miles)
4 Jevington to Alfriston and Wilmington (8½ miles)
5 Exceat to East Dean and the Seven Sisters (8 miles)
6 Exceat to the Cuckmere Valley and Alfriston (7 miles)
7 Exceat Bridge to Cuckmere Haven and Seaford Head (6½ miles)
8 Alfriston to The Long Man of Wilmington (5 miles)
9 Alfriston to Bostal Hill, Alciston and Berwick (7 miles)
10 Bopeep to Bishopstone (7½ miles)
11 Glynde to Beddingham Hill, Firle Beacon and Bostal Hill (11 miles)
12 Glynde to Mount Caburn and Saxon Cross (6 miles)
13 Southease Station to Rodmell and Telscombe (7½ miles)
14 Cooksbridge to Plumpton Plain and Buckland Bank (10 miles)
15 Hassocks to the Clayton Windmills and Ditchling Beacon (10 miles)
16 Devil’s Dyke to Edburton Hill and Poynings (6½ miles)
17 Devil’s Dyke to Mile Oak Barn and Edburton Hill (6½ miles)
18 Wiston to No Man’s Land (6½ miles)
19 Findon to Cissbury Ring (7 miles)
20 Washington to Chanctonbury Ring (4¾ miles)
21 Washington to Kithurst Hill (7½ miles)
22 Chantry Post to Myrtle Grove Farm (7 miles)
23 Storrington to Parham Park and Rackham Hill (7½ miles)
24 Amberley to The Burgh (6¾ miles)
25 Burpham to Angmering Park (6 miles)
26 Arundel to South Stoke and Burpham (8 miles)
27 Bignor Hill to Sutton (6¼ miles)
28 Bignor Hill to Slindon (7¾ miles)
29 Duncton to Barlavington and Sutton (5 or 6 miles)
30 Singleton to Littlewood Farm (5½ miles)
31 West Stoke to Kingley Vale and Stoughton (6½ miles)
32 Compton to East Marden (5 miles)
33 Harting Down to Beacon Hill and Telegraph House (5 miles)
34 East Meon to Salt Hill (5 miles)
35 East Meon to Small Down (6 miles)
36 West Meon to Brockwood Copse (5 miles)
37 West Meon to Old Winchester Hill and Henwood Down (9 miles)
38 Exton to Warnford and Beacon Hill (6 miles)
39 Exton to Lomer Farm (6½ miles)
40 Cheriton to Tichborne (6½ miles)
APPENDIX A Route summary table
APPENDIX B Useful addresses
APPENDIX C Bibliography
An airy clifftop view of Beachy Head lighthouse (Walk 1)
Below Chanctonbury Ring a rewarding descent leads to Washington (Walk 20)
INTRODUCTION
The quintessential Downs: the eastern Downs, from above Wilmington
The sum of the whole is this: walk and be happy; walk and be healthy. The best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose.
Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
A few days ago we walked the last of the routes for this book. The forecast was not promising; the late summer sky was heavy with impatient clouds, and rain fell as the Downs hove into view. But half an hour into our walk the cloud cover broke, and sunshine swept the great open spaces like searchlights picking out individual features before moving on. It was midweek and we had the world to ourselves – plus a few hundred sheep and skylarks that hung as tiny specks over our heads hour upon blustery hour.
We walked southward, the distant sea speckled with white. In one direction a harvested field had been rolled into pillows of golden straw; in another cropped grasslands stretched into infinity. The spire of an ancient church beckoned from a wooded hollow, and
