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WALK 5

Exceat to East Dean and the Seven Sisters

Start/Finish	Seven Sisters Country Park Visitor Centre, Exceat (TV 519 995)
Distance	8 miles (12.5km)
Maps	OS Explorer 123 Eastbourne & Beachy Head 1:25,000
Refreshments	Café at the Visitor Centre, pub and café in East Dean, café at Birling Gap
Access	By bus from Eastbourne, Seaford or Brighton; the Visitor Centre is on the A259
Parking	Pay and display car park in woodland behind the Visitor Centre

The coastline between Beachy Head and Cuckmere Haven is without question one of the finest in the British Isles. The eastern half of the clifftop was included in Walk 1, but the western half forms the visual and physical highlight of this current walk. It is a tremendous route with a variety of interests, not least the Seven Sisters section. The two small villages of Westdean and East Dean have numerous charming cottages and houses; the churches of both villages are matched for interest by that of Friston; there’s Friston Forest, a glimpse of Friston Place, the cropped downland of Went Hill with its great arcing view of the sea, and, at the end of the Seven Sisters roller-coaster, a fine view onto Cuckmere Haven and the Cuckmere Valley reaching inland to the north.

At the junction of Litlington Road and the A259 a few paces west of the Living World and Visitor Centre at Exceat, a path is signed to Westdean. Passing through the lower section of a wooded car park, the bridleway increases in size as it cuts through Friston Forest, initially heading north but then curving roughly eastward before emerging alongside a pond on the edge of Westdean. Turn left in front of Pond Cottage, then right along a narrow road. This leads through the tiny village, curves round a flint wall, rises uphill and forks. The left branch goes to the Norman church of All Saints, and the 13th-century Rectory next door; but our route ignores this side road and continues uphill.

Westdean is a very small but attractive village at the end of a cul-de-sac almost completely surrounded by Friston Forest. It is said that the Saxon King Alfred had an estate here, but there’s no sign of the palace he is supposed to have built in the village in AD850, although there is conjecture that the site may lie beneath the ruins of a medieval manor house. During Alfred’s reign the Cuckmere estuary was much more extensive than it is today (it was then known simply as Dene) and it is thought he maintained a fleet here.

The Forestry Commission road leads directly up to the main part of Friston Forest, then becomes a stony track signed to Jevington and Friston. Keep along this until, shortly after passing a lone house on the left, the track forks. Take the right branch, a broad bare-earth bridleway striking uphill (the left fork goes to Jevington). Lined in summer by a scarlet ‘avenue’ of rosebay willowherb, the track gives easy walking, then slopes downhill and curves to the left. Leave it here and follow a minor track to the foot of the slope where there’s a crossing track. Maintain direction to climb among more trees until you come to the large meadowland of Friston Hill with a water tower seen on the wooded skyline ahead.

Managed by the Forestry Commission, Friston Forest consists of almost 2000 acres of mixed woodland, with broad rides and several footpaths. Originally the forest was almost entirely deciduous, and during the 15th century it sheltered remnants of Jack Cade’s peasant army.

Maintain direction along the right-hand edge of the meadow, then descend to a narrow lane by the entrance to Friston Place at TV 546 988. Turn left and follow the lane as it bends sharply to the right, and about 300 yards after the bend take an unmarked footpath on the right which goes through a gate in a wall surrounding parkland. Walk directly across to a kissing gate on the far side. A few steps take you onto the drive leading to Friston Place, across which you enter a sloping meadow and make for its top right-hand corner. A stile then takes the footpath into woodland and out to a junction of roads opposite a pond and church at Friston (TV 551 983).

Friston spills into the Downs and almost swamps its more attractive neighbour, East Dean. The little church of St Mary the Virgin stands on the western edge, and dates from the 11th century, while Friston Place, seen on the approach to the village, was built in about 1650. Until 1926, when it was blown down in a storm, a windmill stood in a field near the church.

Cross the A259 with care, enter the churchyard through a tapsell gate and, passing the lovely old church on your left, go out by another gate to a sloping meadow with a glimpse of the sea. At the bottom of the meadow you come into East Dean. Bear right along a residential street, soon passing the village green on your left, beside which stands The Tiger Inn. The street forks: branch right (the upper option) along Went Way, at the end of which go through a field gate into a meadow and curve left, then rise along the lower edge of woodland. The path now makes a steady climb through the woods before emerging on the open downland of Went Hill.

The Tiger Inn overlooks the village green at East Dean

Wander ahead to pass along the right-hand side of an orange-roofed barn, with a beautiful and far-reaching view across the Seven Sisters and towards Beachy Head, with the squat, disused Belle Tout lighthouse a prominent feature on the cliffs southeast of Birling Gap. The grass path takes you down to a gate near the white weatherboarded Seven Sisters Cottage. A few paces after this turn right onto the path of the South Downs Way which goes through another gate to begin the crossing of the Seven Sisters.

Note

Should you need refreshments, do not go through this second gate, but follow the alternative path which very soon brings you to the group of buildings at Birling Gap where there is a café.

Crossing the Seven Sisters is a glorious, often breezy walk, with magnificent views throughout. There are, in fact, eight ‘sisters’ – Went Hill Brow, Baily’s Hill, Flat Hill, Flagstaff Brow, Brass Point, Rough Brow, Short Brow and Haven Brow – separated by steep-sided dry valleys known as ‘bottoms’ formed by ancient rivers at a time when the chalk cliffs extended much further seaward than they are now, but were then cut off when the tides pummelled and pounded the chalk away – a process that continues to this day.

Crossing the final ‘sister’, Haven Brow (so-named because it looks down onto the estuary of Cuckmere Haven), the path of the South Downs Way veers right, but we continue ahead down the slope to cross a stile, then curve right and angle down to a kissing gate. The path continues to descend easily, passing a pillbox and through a gate brings you onto the valley path which leads all the way back to Exceat and the Seven Sisters Country Park Visitor Centre.

The Cuckmere River near Exceat

The Seven Sisters Country Park covers a large area of chalk downland east of Cuckmere Haven

Established by East Sussex County Council in 1971, and now managed by the South Downs Joint Committee, the Seven Sisters Country Park covers 690 acres (280 hectares) of chalk cliffs and downland spreading east of Cuckmere Haven. It is heavily used by walkers, for whom the route across the Seven Sisters from Birling Gap is a noted classic. The visitor centre is housed in a converted 18th-century barn, while midway between Exceat and Cuckmere Haven the Country Park has a campsite and camping barn in Foxhole Bottom. Visit www.sevensisters.org.uk.