The South Downs Way winds along a ridge of chalk escarpment all the way from
Winchester to Eastbourne. It was never a pilgrim’s way — it was a trade
route. Along it travelled flints and beads, then bronze and iron. And, of
course, news. Long before mobiles and telegraphs, news still needed to
travel fast, and here it travelled like wildfire thanks to an ancient system
of coastal communication.
Today, most of the high points on the route are still known as beacons. A
beacon was a strategically placed bonfire. When it was lit, you knew it was
time to dry your powder and sharpen your pike: the Spanish Armada was
coming. In a way, the Spaniards did arrive. They’ve taken root right here in
the first village outside Winchester: thick-stemmed Spanish bluebells,
rubbery as calamari, frilly as a cadenza, washed up in the gardens of
England.
Less in evidence, but more delicate, is the British bluebell. It has a
brighter blue about it. As I set off in late May, there were a few remaining
up on the Great Clump, the first rise in the land outside Winchester, where
the path cuts through a beautiful beech wood. There was no wind and the sun
seeping through the underside of the leaves turned them to glass. Woods are
great territory for walkers: they compress sound, reflecting it back to the
earth so you can hear the beetles scratching and the voles escaping.
Coming through the Meon Valley, I counted 18 different types of wildflower in
a 100-yard stretch — well, 17 if you don’t count the wild strawberries.
Another month and they will be ripe, red and sweeter than lollipops.
You don’t really need to carry a great deal for this route; a small pack
should do it if you are not taking a tent. Then it is just a matter of
walking between your accommodation, which you can plot using the excellent
South Downs National Trail website. On the second night, I was a little late
into my B&B, having sat and watched the sun turn into a little pink
pill. I knocked on the door and an elderly woman appeared at an upper window
and inquired: “Are you drunk?” “No.” “Have you been to the pub?” “No.” “Are
you all right?” “I think so, are you all right?”
After establishing we were both all right, I slept like a log.
The middle section of the South Downs Way is the most wooded: long stretches
of tunnels through trees; roe deer jumping across the path in the distance;
speckled wood butterflies dancing in and out of the cracked light. Tucked
into the woodland verge were two memorials, one to Mark “who liked it here”,
and the other to the first German pilot to be shot down in the Battle of
Britain. Has the time not now come to place memorials to all the German
pilots who lost their lives on this soil? They were surely just as young,
just as brave as ours, and in honouring their memory we shall heal ours.
I had taken a breather on top of the Beacon Hill. It had clouded over and
there was a fine drizzle, a thin mist veneer settling over the distance. I
don’t know what made me look up, but there it was, soaring silently: a red
kite. They were reintroduced six years ago and apparently are now thriving.
They are glossier, sleeker, a much bigger engine than a buzzard.
After Houghton Bridge, which is roughly halfway, you really do begin to feel
closer to the sky. The slopes become steeper — up onto Chanctonbury Ring,
then to Devil’s Dyke. The flint paths give way to cropped grass and there is
an absence of fences. Slowly it sinks in: this is not sugar-lump England,
teas and sweet peas; you are now apart from that. The hawthorn trees bear
testament to the fact that in the winter a reaping wind charges in, ripping
out rent from everything that doesn’t bend. But now, in the sunshine, the
painted ladies, red admirals and peacocks feast on bramble flowers and lakes
of oxeye daises. The cowslips in spring must have been extraordinary; I have
never seen so many in one place.
The highest point on the South Downs — Ditchling Beacon — is a non-event. A
concrete trig point and a car park. But soon after, the path turns towards
the sea. It is worth stopping in Southease church — it feels intimate
because it is loved. I loved the Ram Inn in Firle as well — full of farmers’
faces and elderly men with sticks, laughter breaking in waves. After several
days, pub food all begins to taste like scampi. Not here — this was the
best-cooked venison I have ever eaten, and as for Harvey’s real ale... words
cannot suffice. If you have a clear day or two, the last stretch from Firle
to Eastbourne is a really good walk. There is an inland route, but I’d head
for the sea via Alfriston, following the river down to Cuckmere Haven. It is
well worth having a look at the Seven Sisters from the beach (a huge white
canvas flecked with herring gulls), then up onto the top and down into
Birling Gap, which, if the sea has its way, will swallow the hotel within
the next hundred years.
Four miles on and there you are, back in the brine of burgers and cars and the
heady symphony of Eastbourne pier.
It is without doubt an ancient route — marked with the burial mounds of Celtic
kings. All the tumuli along the route would have been white mounds of chalk,
visible from miles away. Time has covered them in grass and flowers. The
Sussex downland is not a muscular landscape; it doesn’t have the white
knuckles of Snowdonia or the big bones of the Cuillins on the Isle of Skye.
The Downs have a feminine energy and they brought me as a man back to the
boy. To that happy land. It really does exist.
Travel details: the trail is 99 miles long and, depending on
your level of fitness, is best tackled in anything from six to nine days. A
good one-stop website for planning is www.nationaltrail.co.uk/southdowns,
which includes an interactive map of accommodation options, from camping
barns to hotels. Advance bookings are essential in high summer. Eastbourne
and Winchester are both served by regular trains and coaches from London.
But I’ve only got a weekend: focus on the section from
Ditchling to Eastbourne. Get to Ditchling via Hassocks on the London to
Brighton line, about two miles from the trail. A good spot for the night is
in Alfriston, at the Deans Place Hotel (01323 870248,
www.deansplacehotel.co.uk; doubles from £115).
Peter Owen-Jones is the presenter of BBC2’s The Battle for Britain’s Soul
FIVE MORE LEG STRETCHERS
WEST HIGHLAND WAY (seven days; moderate)
Starting from Milngavie, on the outskirts of Glasgow, this dramatic,
fabulously varied 95-mile walk hugs the shores of Loch Lomond, takes in the
Highland icons of Rannoch Moor and Glen Coe, and finishes at the foot of Ben
Nevis, in Fort William.
But I’ve only got a weekend: the best section is the
final two days, from the Kings House Hotel (01855 851259, www.kingy.com;
doubles from £52, full breakfast £7.50; free camping) up via spectacular
Highland views over the Devil’s Staircase to Kinlochleven, where Mamore
Lodge Hotel (01855 831213, www.mamorelodgehotel.co.uk; doubles from £52, B&B)
is a splendidly creaky 1905 hunting lodge, 700ft above the loch. Next day,
after five hours through wild mountain scenery that yields glimpses of Ben
Nevis itself, a fireside pint in the Ben Nevis Inn and a night in Glen Nevis
at Achintee Farm (01397 702240, www.achinteefarm.com; doubles £60, B&B)
— both right on the path — are the perfect journey’s end.
More information: www.west-highland-way.co.uk
COAST-TO-COAST PATH (12 days; moderate)
Pioneered by Alfred Wainwright, the godfather of British hill-walking, this
191-mile path from St Bees, on the Irish Sea, to Robin Hood’s Bay, south of
Whitby, passes through the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North
York Moors. Rugged peaks, empty moors, rolling valleys, gorgeous farmhouse
hotels — it’s got the lot.
But I’ve only got a weekend: then go for the Lakes.
From Rosthwaite — the Scafell Hotel (017687 77208, www.scafell.co.uk) has
cosy doubles from £97, B&B — it’s a five-hour hike to Grasmere,
especially wonderful in good weather when you should take the spectacular
high-level route via Gibson Knott. Attached to the pub in Grasmere, the Dale
Lodge Hotel (01539 435300, www.dalelodgehotel.co.uk) has stylish doubles
from £110, B&B.
Now in the heart of the Lakes, it’s five fabulous hours to Patterdale, either
via Grisedale (easy), St Sunday Crag (medium) or Helvellyn via Striding Edge
(tough). In Patterdale, Barco House (01768 482474, www.barcohouse.com) is a
traditional Lakeland stone house, near the pub, with doubles from £57, B&B.
More information: www.coasttocoastguides.co.uk
PEMBROKESHIRE COAST PATH (15 days; moderate)
This is a wild and windswept route that dips and climbs for 186 miles around
the Pembrokeshire peninsula, from Amroth, on Carmarthen Bay, to St Dogmaels,
near Cardigan.
But I’ve only got a weekend: from Solva — where
Williams Accommodation (01437 729000) is a Grade-II listed Georgian house
with four-poster doubles from £68, B&B — the six-hour walk to St
Davids passes a procession of spectacular clifftop views, arches and coves.
After visiting the cathedral, the best bed in St Davids is Warpool Court
Hotel (01437 720300, www.warpoolcourthotel.co.uk), right on the path, with
sumptuous seaview doubles from £180, B&B.
From St Davids, there are five hours of superb clifftop walking to Trefin,
with pub lunch in the Sloop Inn in Porthgain an absolute must. In Trefin,
Bryngarw Guesthouse (01348 831211, www.bryngarwguesthouse.co.uk) has
excellent food and doubles for £60, B&B.
More information: www.visitpembrokeshire.com
COTSWOLD WAY (7 days; easy)
Linking Bath and Chipping Campden (just south of Stratford-upon-Avon), this
103-mile route is a walk through English history, as famous for its
hillforts, burial mounds, battlefields and Roman reminders as it is for its
rolling beauty and picture- perfect pubs.
But I’ve only got a weekend: the 25 miles from
Tormarton to Uley are a classic, olde-worlde stretch. From Tormarton — where
the Compass Inn (01454 218242, www.compass-inn.co.uk), an 18th-century
coaching inn in six acres of gardens, has doubles from £80, room-only — an
easy six-hour day takes you to pretty Wotton-under-Edge. Here, Wotton Guest
House (01453 843158) has a beautiful walled garden where you can have supper
in summer, and doubles for £55, B&B. From Wotton, it’s five hours
past woodlands and hillforts and 360-degree ridge-top views to Uley, where
Hodgecombe Farm (01453 860365, www.hodgecombefarm.co.uk), beautifully
located right on the path, 15 minutes short of the village, has doubles from
£55, B&B.
More information: www.cotswold-way.co.uk
