Length: - 15.3km (9.5 miles) from Southease to Rottingdean
- variable up to 23.2km (14.4 miles) if you walk into Brighton
- 23.7km (14.7 miles) for a circular walk back to Southease. T=swc.65
9.54 train from Victoria (10.01 Clapham Junction, 10.10 East Croydon) to Lewes, arriving 10.56, changing there - be quick!! - to the 11.00 to Southease, arriving 11.07
It is a summer Saturday and if the weather is fine, trains to Lewes might be busy: leave extra time to buy your ticket, and try to get off the middle of the train at Lewes to get across the footbridge to platform 3 to make the connection.
Buy a day return to Southease, which is valid for return from Brighton also if necessary
It is four years since this walk had a summer outing. It starts at lovely remote Southease station and follows the River Ouse initially, before cutting inland to Rodmell. A very early lunch is possible here at the Abergavenny Arms, but otherwise the route carries on over fields to Kingston, just outside Lewes, where hopefully the Juggs Inn will be able to accommodate us (it is always popular but has not failed us before).
There is then a steep - but very scenic - climb up onto the downs, and walk over their lonely middle to Rottingdean, 9.5 miles into the walk, where you have lots of tea options. Rottingdean beach is a pleasant place for a sea swim.
After this, you can either
- take very regular buses into Brighton
- walk part or all of the distance into Brighton (cutting short the walk using buses as appropriate)
- or walk back over the downs to Southease - a nice tranquil end to the day and beautiful in the evening light. The Abergaveny Arms in Rodmell (just off the walk route) is a possible drinks stop towards the end of this option.
Trains back are at 05 past the hour (until late in the evening) from Southease, while from Brighton they are at 09 and 39 past to Victoria and 12, 25, 42 and 55 past to London Bridge (and points north on Thameslink).
3 comments:
Planning to come & will definitely swim
Catriona
Gorgeous walk, thank you Walker. Great to see some old faces
N=20 on this walk, braving a very crowded train to the coast. Despite this arriving at Lewes two minutes late, everyone (I think) made the connection to the Southease train. The skies were thickly clouded at this point, but soon cleared on arrival, and it was basically, as forecast, a day of w=hot-sun.
After the river section in the morning the route went across a lot of arable fields, but these were bordered by interesting wildflowers on which butterflies (especially newly-emerged summer generation whites) were visible in abundance.
10 of us, accompanied in due course by 5 picknickers, had no trouble getting shady outside tables for lunch at the Juggs. This was being run on Biblical principles - ie the last to order got their food first. Thus, despite being told there would be a 45 minute wait, my food turned up in ten minutes, while earlier orderers waited half an hour or more, no doubt to the benefit of their immortal souls.
After lunch, we passed the profuse hollyhocks in Kingston village and made the steep climb up onto the downs. I got behind here, contemplating butterflies and downland flowers, and this got worse on the top of the downs where a kilometre or more of arable set-aside was awash with flowering knapweed, thistle and musk mallow, all fretted with whites and peacocks and walls (the last three being butterflies).
Consequently I lost touch with most of the group till Rottingdean and even there I only had partial accounts. Some may or may not have gone to the Grange for tea, and three others to the Trellis Tea Rooms. Five or so certainly got the bus in to Brighton, but did any walk?
What I can say with certainty is that ten of us swam in the sea, which was a delicious temperature - really delightful. Two swam 200 metres from the shore around the furthest buoy, with glorious views of the surrounding coast on the return leg to the shore.
Afterwards a gaggle of us went to the White Horse for tea, wine and cider, where there was debate about how to round off the day. The initially not-much favoured option of completing the circular walk to Southease eventually garnered a surprising five votes, and off we set for a lovely walk over the downs in golden light.
We got to Southease at 7.40pm, in time for a can of beer at the YHA (whose cafe is open for drinks at least till 8pm, it seems), and then got the 8.05pm train, stopping in Lewes to get takeaway pizza, and consuming this with other “supplies” on the not-too-busy 8.57pm train to London.
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