The white chalk cliffs of the Seven Sisters

Standing on a cliff edge high above Beachy Head Lighthouse, the views along the Seven Sisters coastline and out across the English Channel are utterly spectacular. The iconic white chalk cliffs stretch into the distance for around 12 miles, the steep undulating route makes for a truly magnificent walk on a cold but sunny winter’s day. Inland are the rolling chalk grasslands and ancient woodland of the South Downs National Park.

It’s hard to overstate the beauty of the South Downs. It’s a gentle landscape compared to those in the north of England, but the chalk escarpments and rolling hills make for deceptively hard walking. Luckily, if you head inland there are plenty of attractive villages with cosy country pubs in which to rest. It is also an area filled with history, from Iron Age hillforts to motte and bailey castles, medieval churches to Second World War defences.

The South Downs is the newest of England’s ten National Parks – there are three more in Wales, plus an additional two in Scotland. Established in 2010, it covers an area of 1,641 km² that has been shaped by human activity over thousands of years. Efforts to create a national park in the South Downs date to the 1920s, but opposition from landowners saw the area miss out on the initial national park wave in the 1950s.

In truth, the heavily populated region of the south east of England means that nature has been heavily degraded, work to restore the rare and vulnerable chalk grassland habitat is ongoing. Today, it covers less than 5% of the South Downs. It’s one reason the national park’s creation was highly controversial. It seems inconceivable to me that this glorious landscape wouldn’t be given the highest level of protection.

I might be less keen on it when the wind is howling and the waves are crashing into the precipitous chalk cliffs. As I left Eastbourne train station at the eastern end of the Seven Sisters though, the sky was bright blue and there was just a gentle breeze. My goal was to walk the coastal path to the inlet at Cuckmere Haven, and then cut inland along the River Cuckmere to Alfriston and then on the South Downs Way to Polegate.

It’s fair to say it was an ambitious walk of two halves: the soaring, vertigo-inducing cliffs of the Seven Sisters, and the inland valleys and villages of East Sussex. The Seven Sisters are named after the cliff peaks that rise and fall along the coast, and the immediate thing about them is that there are eight of them. Beachy Head, the tallest chalk cliff in Britain, was my first stop to view the red and white striped lighthouse below.

The hill behind Beachy Head is home to a memorial for the airmen of RAF Bomber Command in the Second World War. For many, flying over these cliffs was the last time they would see their homeland. A little further along is a memorial to five Frenchmen from Picardy, who crossed the Channel in canoes in 1941 to continue their fight against Nazism. It’s a poignant place overlooking the ocean.

At Beachy Head the views stretch as far as the eye can see, and I could see the next point on the route, Belle Tout Lighthouse. The seas and cliffs on this coast claimed many ships over the centuries, but only in 1828 was a lighthouse built. It was decommissioned in 1902 after proving to be less successful than hoped. Today, it’s a private house that was moved 17m back from the cliff edge in 1999 due to coastal erosion.

Until this point I’d seen only a few walkers, but as I descended towards Birling Gap there were far more people. Here the chalk cliffs descend to sea level and you can walk out onto the beach beneath the hulking cliffs. It makes for a dramatic stroll when the tide is out. Up above on the cliff tops there are some houses which, you have to assume, have a limited life span as the tides and rain erode the cliffs.

A short distance away is a memorial to two brothers who died in the First World War. The Robertson War Memorial commemorates one brother who died at the Somme in 1916, the other brother died in a German military hospital in Hanover in 1917. It was a mile or so until I reached the view point over Cuckmere Haven. A natural break in the walk, I sat and looked out over the gorgeous view and had a packed lunch before heading inland.