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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 towering cliff of Beachy Head, seen from the shoreline diversion

Beyond the Cow Gap fork the path continues along cropped grass on the lower cliffs before curving sharply to the right (west) and rising very steeply. At the head of the slope join the route of the South Downs Way which crosses a tarmac path making a loop to a vantage point, then curves along the clifftop to Beachy Head.

From here to Birling Gap the walk follows the route of the South Downs Way along the clifftops. Do not stray too close to the edge as the cliffs are prone to crumbling. This is a walk of great scenic beauty: sea to one side, rolling downland spreading away on the other, while ahead the white-edged cliffs lead the eye towards Seaford Head. With its cropped thatch of grass and dramatic white cliffs, this forms part of a treasured Heritage Coast.

In 1999 a massive rockfall destroyed a section of Beachy Head’s cliff-face, a potent reminder of its vulnerability. Heeding the warning, the owners of the disused Belle Tout lighthouse (built in 1831 but made redundant in 1901) physically moved it a short distance down the slope, away from the cliff edge. The cottages at Birling Gap are also succumbing, one by one, to cliff-edge erosion.

The way slopes down almost to road level below the stumpy former lighthouse of Belle Tout (now a private dwelling), where you come onto a tarmac path rising to it. Pass round the inland side of the boundary wall, then resume across the clifftop to Birling Gap at TV 554 960. Refreshments may be had here.

Cross the car park and take a stony track beyond the public toilet block and pass a few houses. The way forks by the last house, with the South Downs Way cutting left to Exceat. Leaving that route now, go ahead on a bridleway signed to East Dean. Rising up a slope among gorse bushes, a bridle gate gives access to the NT-owned estate of Crowlink. Through a second gate follow a grass track onto the crest of Went Hill where you’ll see an orange-roofed barn. Ignore the track which now curves left, and keep ahead on the crest of the hill to enter a wooded area. On coming to a flint wall follow this to the left to reach a kissing gate. Through this maintain direction alongside a fence and shortly come to a stile. Over the stile aim slightly right ahead through a narrowing section of meadow enclosed by bushes and trees, to where a fence and flintstone wall meet. The wall is crossed by two stone stiles which give options for the continuing walk.

Shorter walk

This avoids East Dean and the opportunity for refreshment, crosses the right-hand stile, then follows a path angling down and across a grass slope to reach the head of a track. Follow this to the left, alongside a playing field to join the Birling Gap Road at TV 556 974.

The main walk crosses the stile directly ahead, wanders down the slope, then veers left through trees. Emerging from the trees bear sharply to the right to a field gate giving onto a drive, which brings you into the lovely flint-walled village of East Dean. Veer right and in a few paces you’ll come to the village green with the Tiger Inn on its far side. The road forks. Take the lower branch signed to Birling Gap: this leads past a little church and on to a T-junction. Turn right along Birling Gap Road to reach the playing field at TV 556 974.

The two routes having rejoined, keep alongside the road until it curves right by the Seven Sisters Sheep Centre. Walk ahead along a drive towards Birling Manor, then through a gate on the left. Pass to the left of a house, then through a second gate to walk along the left-hand side of a woodland shaw. Come to another gate at the end of a flintstone wall and take the right-hand option on a path signed to Belle Tout.

Family strollers wander down to Birling Gap, with the Seven Sisters ahead

When you draw level with Cornish Farm (TV 564 964) turn left in the direction of Warren Hill. Pass along the left-hand side of the farm and its outbuildings, then through a gate keep ahead along a track that leads into a valley known as Wigden’s Bottom. Come to a water treatment building, shown as a pumping station on the 1:25,000 map, and keep ahead a short distance beyond it as far as a dew pond seen on the left. Now turn sharply to the right at a junction, and angle up the slope (virtually cutting back) on a bridleway signed to Beachy Head.

Passing through a line of scrub come onto Long Down and bear left. Remain along the crest of the Downs – a big and spacious landscape grazed by innumerable sheep – roughly following the right-hand fenceline that leads to a bridle gate with a view of Bullockdown Farm off to the right. The way becomes enclosed by fences and a flintstone wall, and eventually brings you to a road at TV 591 971. Eastbourne is now seen ahead.

Low-growing mallow is common on the clifftops

Turn right alongside the road as far as a flint wall, then cross the road with care to follow a faint grass path ahead alongside gorse bushes. At a crossing grass path maintain direction down the slope. When this path forks, take the right branch ahead, now on the South Downs Way once more, and descend steeply to the refreshment kiosk on Dukes Drive where the walk began.