Fiona Barltrop savours a fine springtime walk
ENJOYABLE though any good walk is, whatever its form, a linear one always has that sense of a journey – even if it is just for the day – that a circular one lacks. Linking railway stations to create linear routes is a regular habit of mine in the South East where I live, the eastern end of the South Downs being particularly well supplied with stations.
The small rural station of Glynde was my starting point today. A short walk southwards, crossing the
A27, took me to the foot of the northern escarpment, and a good climb to the top. Swathes of bright yellow – fields of oilseed rape – greeted the eye as I approached the Downs, whilst higher up it was the more subtle
yellow of myriad cowslips that carpeted the slopes. Now early May and the creamy blossom of hawthorn was out, too, taking over from that of blackthorn and before it plum.
Looking back before reaching the top, Mount Caburn fills the view – an outlier of the South Downs, it is crowned by an Iron Age hill fort (and makes a rewarding little walk from Glynde in the other direction). Atop Beddingham Hill I joined the South Downs Way heading east along the broad grassy ridge, views over the Weald in one direction and to the coast in the other, the joyous song of skylarks above. Firle Beacon marks the highest point along the ridge, from where it’s mostly all downhill to Alfriston, the little ascent of Bostal Hill being the exception. It’s fine walking, good underfoot, a gradual gradient and views stretching to distant Cuckmere Haven, where the South Downs Way meets the coast. Before the final descent to Alfriston, you’ll pass the Long Burgh, one of the largest long barrows in Sussex, with a helpful information panel. As you’ll read, this is the most prolific barrow area in the National Park, with over 50 along the ridge between Firle Beacon and Alfriston. A tomb with a view!
Alfriston is a picturesque and duly popular old village, with a beautiful church – the ‘Cathedral of the South Downs’ – on the village green and beside it the thatched Old Clergy
House (the first building bought by the National Trust – for the princely sum of £10 in 1896).
From here it’s easy walking along the Cuckmere river bank then along the hillside above it to Friston Forest. Emerging from the trees before the descent to the A259, you’ll have a first view over the famous meanders.
Parting company with the South Downs Way, I continued down to the beach on the east side of Cuckmere Haven, then back up the river bank and down its west side to the Coastguard Cottages and the ever-wondrous view of the Seven Sisters. The final stretch took me via thrift-fringed cliffs to Seaford, the insistent cries of the onomatopoeically named kittiwakes filling the air at the western end (home to a colony that comes to breed each year). A fine sunset provided a fitting finale before the train back.