Saturday walk - Burgess Hill to Hassocks - Buttercups and the South Downs

Length: 27.8km (16.8 miles) for the whole walk, but shorter options from 13.4km (8.4 miles) to 20.2km (12.6 miles)
Toughness: 8 out of 10 T=3.108

9.50 train from Victoria (9.56 Clapham Junction, 10.06 East Croydon) to Burgess Hill, arriving 10.35.

Buy a day return to Hassocks

For walk directions click here. For GPX click here

I have the happiest memories of doing this walk at this time of year in 2015, when the early part across the fields to Ditchling were awash with buttercups. The central part of this walk is then a climb up onto the South Downs, before descending over Wolstonbury Hill to the lowlands again for the final section.

Ways to shorten the walk include:

- Have an early lunch at the Bull in Ditchling, four miles onto the walk, and then once on the downs depart from the walk route and follow the South Downs Way to the Jack and Jill windmills. Descend the downs from there to the village of Clayton and follow a path alongside the railway line to Hassocks. This is a 13.4km (8.3 mile) walk from Burgess Hill. Once up on the downs you are off the walk route but you could probably follow this route pretty easily even without a map.

- Alternatively, continuing on the walk to the Plough in Pyecombe (the recommended lunch stop for the main walk, or a possible tea stop for those who have lunched in Ditchling), and then carrying on beyond it, you find yourself on Wolstonbury Hill, which is on the Hassocks to Upper Beeding walk. Should you a) have a map or b) be familiar with the route of that walk you can reverse its start to Hassocks, making a total walk of 18.8km (11.7 miles).

-  Alternatively, continue with the walk route to the pleasant village of Hurstpierpoint, 20.2km (12.6 miles) from the start of the walk. From the war memorial in this village you can get bus no 33 at 4.50pm to Hassocks station, or bus 273 at 4.54pm or 6.13pm. It is otherwise a 2.7km (1.7 mile) walk down the road from Hurstpierpoint to Hassocks and there are some paths that would take you off the road if you have a map. Hurstpierpoint has pubs.

Trains back from Hassocks are at 36 past to Victoria (48 minutes - the fastest option) and 15 and 45 past to St Pancras (the last day of the slow service between East Croydon and Blackfriars before the new Thameslink timetable kicks in tomorrow... but these trains are reasonably fast to East Croydon, taking 40 minutes)