Tag: South Downs Way

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Walk east from Ditchling Beacon, South Downs Way

Walk east from Ditchling Beacon, South Downs Way

The start of the walk

ABOUT
This is a walk high on the ridge of the South Downs with expansive views to the Sussex Weald to the North and across rolling countryside to Brighton and the coast in the south. You often see and hear sky larks in this area.

We walked from Ditchling Beacon to Blackcap Hill and back in early March 2021, a very cold day but a wonderful walk, a total distance of five miles. This route follows the South Downs Way until the sharp right turn turn of the South Downs Way towards Kingston just 200 or 300 yards before Blackcap hilltop. At this point we carried straight on to the summit of Blackcap Hill and and if we had chosen we could have walked on to the East Sussex market town of Lewes.

Mud? In spite of very persistent spring rains the route was remarkably dry because of the quick draining nature of the chalk Downs.

DISTANCE
As the walk is a there-and-back walk you can make it any distance you want. We walked for two and a half miles to Blackcap Hill and returned.

START/LOCATION
Start at the National Trust car park on top of Ditchling Beacon on the ridge above the village of Ditchling. This is a very popular starting point for walks along the ridge of the South Downs so at peak times you will not get into this car park. It’s best to try to go at unpopular times for walks from this point. 

ALTERNATIVE STARTING POINTS
To access the route illustrated here you could start at the very tiny car park at the bottom of the hill. There is a steep footpath from this car park to the Beacon at the top. If you use my interactive map and move it around I’m sure you would be able to find starting points in Brighton, but that could make a walk much too long for some people.

FACILITIES
The National Trust Car park is a paying car park but free to members of the National Trust.Members need to get a free ticket from the machine to display on the dashboard. The road is narrow so there is no roadside parking allowed.
Public toilet? There is no public toilet at the start of this walk. The nearest one is in the village of Ditchling about a mile and a half away.This public toilet is found beneath the Village Hall near the centre of the village on the Lewes Road. I’m not sure if it will be open when covid restrictions are in place.

National Trust could do better
I think it would be a good idea for the National Trust to provide toilet facilities at this very popular car park which must provide them with quite a substantial revenue. It would also be a good idea if the National Trust enlarged this car park to two or three times its present size.

Refreshments
There are one or two shops, a tea-room and two very good old pubs in the village of Ditchling, the Bull and the White Horse. The Bull is the more expensive of the two for dining. All found near the cross roads.

Another good pub, The Half Moon, is at the foot of the Downs at Plumpton on the B2116. Zoom in on the interactive map to see where there are footpaths down to the main road.

ROUTE FINDING
Once you have found the start of the route then finding your way could not be easier. You just cross the road from the car park and head East along the track on the ridge of the Downs. You really don’t need a map if you’re only going a a couple of miles.
However, my map is interactive so you can use it to zoom in and see where other paths connect with the route (some head towards Brighton). You can also view the route from a satellite view point if you wish.

Interactive map

TO MAKE THE MAP WORK click on “plotaroute” at the bottom right. Then you can

  • zoom in to see other paths, for example to the villages of Ditchling, Westmeston and Plumpton.
  • view full screen by clicking the four headed arrow,
  • view satellite or cyclable route etc views by clicking the down arrow next to the route type label (top right)
  • show down hill sections in green, uphill in orange and steeper uphill in red by clicking DISPLAY, then “Hilliness”
  • show current weather and for next days by clicking Menu, “Weather”
  • print the map by clicking Menu, “Print”
  • download the map by clicking Menu, “Download”
Posted on by — Leave a comment

Devils Dyke walking west – walk near Brighton UK – with photos.

Walking west along the South Downs Way just above the village of Fulking which is situated down below to the right of the picture and out of sight.

TO MAKE THE MAP WORK click on “plotaroute” at the bottom right. Then you can

  • zoom in to see other paths, for example to the villages of Fulking and Poynings.
  • view full screen by clicking the four headed arrow,
  • view satellite or cyclable route etc views by clicking the down arrow next to the route type label (top right)
  • show down hill sections in green, uphill in orange and steeper uphill in red by clicking DISPLAY, then “Hilliness”
  • show current weather and for next days by clicking Menu, “Weather”
  • print the map by clicking Menu, “Print”
  • download the map by clicking Menu, “Download”

 

ABOUT THE WALK

This is a great walk with a feeling that you are walking on top of the world as you have wonderful views of the Sussex Weald to the north and views over farmland to the south towards Brighton and the sea. The view in front of you is of hills rolling away as far as the eye can see.

We walked on a chilly blue-sky Friday morning in early February. It was an exhilarating walk. Near the village of Fulking we saw two buzzards and heard one mewing. Further on we heard and saw skylarks. And near the barn at the end of our walk, looking south to the sea and the wind turbines out at sea there were  flocks of starlings wheeling around and dozens of seagulls taking a great interest in the food being given to some cows on the far side of the field by the walk route.

Mud? There has been a very rainy start to the year here in Sussex 2021, so down at lower levels there is still quite a lot of mud about making many paths very unpleasant to walk on. However, when we did our Devils Dyke walk there had been two or three dry days and the only mud we saw was just a little near the first gateway.

One of the great benefits of walking on the Downs is that they are made of chalk and drain very readily so the route was dry and firm and a pleasure to walk on.

DISTANCE
As the walk is a there-and-back walk you can make it any distance you want. We walked for two and a quarter miles and returned. The limit of our walk was the the barn and silo looking like a Byzantine church with the the aerial pylon beside it looking like a recently landed Martian spaceship. Most of the route is a section of the South Downs Way so it could be pursued West as far as Winchester.

START/LOCATION
Start by The Devil’s Dyke pub at the end of Devil’s Dyke Road which heads north from Brighton. You can get onto this road from the A281 and the Google Map at the end of this article will show you how to do this.

ALTERNATIVE STARTING POINTS
To access the route illustrated here you could start in the village of Poynings with a steep climb up to the car park for about 20 minutes to half an hour, or start at the village of Fulking by the Shepherd and Dog pub and take a track up onto the top of the Downs.

FACILITIES
At the time of writing ( March 2021) the Devil’s Dyke pub is closed because of covid restrictions.
Car park – This is owned and operated by the National Trust so it is a paying car park but free for members of the National Trust.
The public toilet at the end of the pub is also closed, no doubt claiming covid as the reason for this. ( I think the National Trust could do far more with all the money collected from motorists to provide toilet facilities and maintain them.)

About half a mile west from the Devil’s Dyke pub you could take a track down to the village of Fulking where the very popular Shepherd and Dog pub serves real ale and good food. It is extremely popular in summer. (Currently closed because of covid.)

The route map I have used here was created using software I have not used before supplied by plotaroute.com. It should be interactive so I hope you have fun playing around with it.
Please feel free to add comments about your experience of this walk and this area. Please also share this post. Happy walking!

David Roberts

Note: About walking the Dyke itself  –  see my post on walking east from Devils Dyke pub/car park.

This is a bridleway, part of the South Downs Way. View east.

View back from the barn, looking north east over the track just walked.