Length: 20.5 km (12.7 mi) or 24.5 km from Rye
Ascent/Descent: 564/550m
Net Walking Time: ca. 5 ½ hours or 6 ¼ hours from Rye
Toughness: 7 out of 10 or 8 out of 10 from Rye
Take the 09.34 Ashford train from St.
Pancras (09.41 Stratford I’nal), change Ashford (10.11/10.24), arriving Winchelsea
at 10.50 [or Rye at 10.45]
Return trains: up to 4 trains per hour either to LBG/W’loo
East/Charing X, or to Victoria (slowest) or to St. Pancras via Ashford
(fastest). Buy a Hastings return.
This walk starts from Winchelsea station below Winchelsea (once a coastal port, but storms have since stranded it 2 km inland), up into the pretty and historic village of Winchelsea (otherwise not visited on the main walk) and then by an attractive ridge route with fine views to the Queen's Head in Icklesham, a 17th century pub near the church in Icklesham. [The alternative main walk route is flat and follows the River Brede and canals to lunch.] The afternoon section features lovely coastal views and has a hilly ending (there are 4 steep cliffs to climb). Hastings has a 'working beach', a resort beach, a modern art gallery (http://www.jerwoodgallery.org/, open to 17.00 hours) and a quaint old town.
A
Circular Walk from Rye is described.
For walk directions, a map, a height
profile, gpx/kml files, and photos click here.
Lunch: The
Queens Head in Icklesham (5.4 km/3.3 mi, food from 12.00).
Tea: Plenty of options in Hastings. See the webpage for details.
Tea: Plenty of options in Hastings. See the webpage for details.
T=1.25.a
6 comments:
This looks like a great walk! Hoping to go on it. I was reading the comments on the walk page and it looks like there is a closed cliff path due to possible landslips. Do you know if the online version incorporates an alternate route?
Never mind above question! I didn't read the pdf carefully enough. The answer was sitting there on the first page.
Southeastern have some summer tickets on sale at £20 return. https://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/destinations-and-offers/offers
...but this is technically not valid for breaking the journey at intermediate stations...
The trains to Ashford and on to Rye/Winchelsea were very full indeed, but most SWC-folk seemed to have found seats. 21 started in Winchelsea, 1 in Rye for the long walk, whom we bumped into when leaving the lunch pub. n=22 therefore in total. The weather had returned to some kind of (shortlived) normality: low 20 degrees, the wind from the West, and quite some breeze at that. So choppy seas for the would-be-swimmers (not me).
A Book 1 Classic posted with the amended nice start through Winchelsea [nice, albeit largely tarmac]. All seemed to walk this variant (probably just following the 'leader'). The walk falls into three parts, really: a nice start, a drab middle (the bit from Cliff End/Pett to the boundary of Hastings Country Park: enclosed paths between garden fences, residential roads and no views), and a very nice finish up and down through the glens and along the top of the cliffs to Hastings.
Hastings itself was booming with people, temporary fairground and all.
Having just missed the 16.26 back to Ashford, the faster walkers settled into the 'interesting' Crowley's pub (named after Alisteir Crowley, the occultist, you guessed it) for a drink until the 17.26 train. w=warm-with-a-strong-breeze
Just to add....after some slow service at the lunch pub about 8 or 9 set-off for a leisurely afternoon with one other exploring a new route. The relaxed pack encountered many diversions along the way with some popping into a flower show at Pett and others stopping by the Coastguards for afternoon tea and drinks....I think most dropped down to Fairlight Glen at different times...but given the rough seas only 2 managed a "full body paddle" in the surf.....a pity, as the water temp was actually very pleasant....and would have made for a very nice late afternoon swim had it not been so rough....A number of the relaxed group then re-assembled in Hastings for drinks before catching the 20:50 armed with provisions to feed an army for a rather convivial trip back to London.....
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