SEVEN SISTERS WALK
WHITE CLIFFS OF SUSSEX

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A moderately difficult, well way-marked route

This is a short but exhilarating walk along magnificent chalk cliffs overlooking the English Channel. The sight of the Seven Sisters - great white headlands divided by plunging combes - can be breathtaking and they have an abundance of wild flowers in spring and summer. With the smell of crushed thyme, the song of larks, the squawking of gulls, and either the whisper of gentle breezes or the roaring of wind and sea pounding the cliffs far below, it is an exciting and memorable walk whatever the weather.

It begins from the 1870 pier of the coastal town of Eastbourne. Walk westwards along the promenade, passing the Wish Tower built as part of a defence system in Napoleon's time, and now housing a museum showing how this coast has been protected against invasion since then. At the end of the promenade is the start of the South Downs Way. It is this way-marked path which is now followed for ten miles. The thin chalky line of the path climbs steeply up through scrub on Beachy Head and soon you are walking along cliffedges. Pass the famous lighthouse and also its predecessor at Belle Tout which is now in danger of toppling into the sea.

Down at Birling Gap the National Trust have erected a viewing platform and steps down to the beach. At the hotel refreshments are available to stoke you up for the switchback walk over the Seven Sisters. From the last of the Sisters there is a magnificent view over the salt marsh where Cuckmere River crosses a shingle beach to reach the sea. Now the path drops steeply down and turns inland. Here you will see a variety of sea birds and waders as you follow the meanders of the river.

At Exceat Bridge and the Golden Galleon pub you can catch a bus back to Eastbourne (service route 712).

DISTANCE

10 miles/16 km

MAPS

- Ordnance Survey Pathfinder 1324 (TV 49/59/69)
- Ordnance Survey 1:25000 Explorer 16 South Downs Way (Newhaven to Eeastbourne)

GUIDEBOOK

South Dows Way National Trail Guide.

ACCOMMODATION AND FURTHER INFORMATION

Eastbourne Tourist Information Centre
3 Cornfield Road
Eastbourne, East Sussex
BN21 4QL.
Tel: (0323) 411400
Fax: (0323) 649574

Lange Afstand Wandelvereniging "VIA-VIA".
Gegenereerd op 11-02-2001 door C.P.J. Aerssens