9.24 train from Victoria (9.31 Clapham Junction, 9.40 East Croydon), arriving Lewes at 10.33.
Buy a day return to Glynde if you want the option of finishing there: otherwise a day return to Lewes.
**** Some extra notes on the heat: see comment below. ****
This is surely the ultimate downland circuit, with fabulous views throughout, crossing the three big massifs to the south of Lewes. If three is too many, you can finish at Glynde, after 10.8 miles, but what else do you have to do on the longest evening of the year?
I am specifying the anticlockwise direction (ie to Southease first, then Glynde) because it is far superior: short steep climbs, long gentle descents with lovely views. It also gets the longest and highest section over first.
This gets you in six miles or so to the Abergavenny Arms in Rodmell, your pub lunch stop. They “recommend booking because we often get busy”, but we usually squeeze in. If not, a mile or so more gets you to Southease station, just beyond which is the YHA Courtyard Cafe which does do hot meals (and is open to the public).
Your next 3.9 mile section is a brisk climb, followed by a glorious walk along the top and a long lingering descent to Glynde with one of the best views in England in front of you. There is apparently a new Steamworks pub at Glynde station, an ideal tea stop. (I am not sure if the tea rooms a bit further on still exist, but they may do).
Trains back from Glynde are at 15 past. If you haven’t had tea in Glynde, you can probably exit the station at Lewes to have tea there.
Otherwise it is a short hop and a skip (OK, 3.8 miles) over Mount Caburn to Lewes, where there are various places for your well-earned drink (or meal).
Trains back from Lewes are at 25 and 55 past. If you get a train after 9pm you might be mixing with the dinner-jacketed Glyndebourne crowd.
4 comments:
The Trevor Arms in Glynde, closed since 2017, has been taken over by the Glynde Estate, who also own The Ram in Firle, and is due to re-open shortly, though no date yet.
When I picked this walk I expected fine sunshine, but not that it would be quite so hot!! It has to be said that this walk has very little shade, except briefly at the very beginning. Definitely bring lots of water and wear a hat.
It is worth noting that the forecast for Lewes is for temperatures FOUR DEGREES BELOW that of London - the coastal effect at work. So currently 28 degrees, not 32 degrees. This is forecast for the AFTERNOON, so less hot up to lunchtime.
An idea that occurs to me, if anyone is interested, is one could do the morning half of the walk, have a pub lunch, and then get a train from Southease (12 minutes past the hour) to Bishopstone (10 mins journey time) and have a swim in the sea in the afternoon.
Talking of the sea, the 9.24 train to Lewes is likely to be busy with the seaside crowd going to Eastbourne. Ideally get on it at Victoria as soon as it is announced. If getting on at Clapham Junction or East Croydon, you could get the Littlehampton train which is eight minutes earlier (so 9.23 from CJ, 9.34 from East Croydon - it leaves Victoria at 16 past). This is never as busy as the Eastbourne train (famous last words...). If you get off this train at Haywards Heath and wait on the same platform, the Lewes train comes into that platform ten minutes later. It may have thinned out by then with people getting off at Gatwick, and if not, you only have 15 minutes to stand to Lewes.
All these are just some ideas. I will come on the walk ready to do the full walk or have a swim, according to what people want.
In the words of a former friend of mine, this was not as bad as I thought it would be. In the morning it was not so hot, a very nice breeze off the sea taking the edge of temperatures, the sun pleasant rather than blazing. W=Sun-turned-to-cloud-at-lunchtime, which was unexpected but kept the afternoon heat at bay. Right at the end of the afternoon when the cloud broke up, we realised how hot it might have been.
The train to Lewes was busy but I think we all got seats. We met one car driver at Lewes, making 12 walkers in all. A late starter had to sit on the floor of her train from East Croydon to Lewes. She caught us up at lunch, making N=13.
After the lovely morning section, with its fabulous views, nearly all went to the Abergavenny Arms to eat or at least drink. It was not madly busy and ordering was quick and the young staff cheerful. Discussions showed considerable support for the swimming idea I posted in a comment. Four of us hoofed it to get the 14.12 train from Southease to Bishopstone. Two were given a lift by the car driver. All seven of us had a nice swim at Bishopstone, albeit under grey skies.
There was even a bit of rain out to sea, which unexpectedly came our way as we were having tea at the beach cafe, though only briefly. The car driver then went home, while six of us got the 4.02pm train back to Southease. One stayed on the train, leaving five of us to walk over the downs to Glynde.
En route we saw large clusters of colourful six-spot burnet moths on knapweed flowers - I estimated 70-80 in all. Larks sang everywhere. As I say above, the sun came out as we walked down to Glynde.
By this point we were all feeling weary, so we decided reluctantly to skip the last section over Mount Caburn. (Did anyone do the full walk? Please post your own report). Instead we tried out the new Steamworks pub in Glynde station. It lacks the array of craft beers of its Seaford counterpart, but is in all other respects a charm, very comfortable and friendly. One of us had a quick drink and got the 6.15 train: the rest of us enjoyed the very tasteful and cheap food (£12 for a main) and got the 7.15.
All was well till we got to Lewes, where the train was rammed, with room only to sit on the floor in the vestibules. My companions put up with this all the way to London. I decamped when air travellers with large luggage tried to squeeze on at Gatwick. Being a train nerd, I had ascertained that a nearly empty train from Portsmouth Harbour was due ten minutes later. I write this report on that train in the sumptuous luxury of an entirely empty set of table seats.
I hear that walker #14, who was on an earlier train, did the whole walk, meeting up in Glynde with the five who had walked from Rodmell without diverting for a swim. One of them accompanied him on the walk back to Lewes.
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