Book 1,Walk 31 - Glynde to Seaford
Length: 23 km (14.3 miles)
Toughness: 8 out of 10
To shorten the walk, take the bus from Exceat into Seaford
London
Victoria: 09-47 hrs Ore and Littlehampton Service: CJ 09-53 hrs; EC 10-03 hrs
Arrive
Lewes: 10-47 hrs
Leave
Lewes: 11-09 hrs Ore stopping service from Brighton
Arrive
Glynde: 11-14 hrs
Return:
Seaford to
Victoria: via
Lewes at 16-25, 16-54, 17-20, 17-57, 18-24, 18-59 and 19-17 hrs:
Seaford to
Victoria: via
Brighton at 18-41 and 19-37 hrs
Rail ticket: buy a day return to
Seaford. For Railcards holders whose railcards only come into play from 10-00 hrs, you should make it to East Croydon and buy your off peak return from there.
This is the longest walk in Book 1 and many a walker's favourite. It comes in 3 legs, all very different, and all delightful:
Leg 1 - From
Glynde to
Alfriston. Leaving the railway station it's best to keep to the road
(rather than taking the inland path) until you reach the A27 road
, which you cross with care, before heading for the village of West Firle via Firle Park. From there you head towards the base of the downs for a steep ascent up onto the
South Downs, for a lovely ridge walk, with fine views, You descend off the downs into the village of
Alfriston for lunch, where you have a choice of three good pubs and a number of tea rooms. Popular with SWC walkers is the
George Inn tel: 01323-870319 . It's advisable to 'phone ahead with numbers - your e.t.a 13-30 hrs.
Leg 2 - Alfriston to
Exceat (pronounced Ex-Seat): this leg starts beside the Cuckmere River for a leisurely stroll along its river bank. You leave this path at
Litlington , where there is a late lunch option at the excellent Plough and Harrow pub - which also acts as a stop to take on liquid. It's uphill now, towards the village of
West Dean, then into
Friston Forest before you descend to
Exceat where you can take an early tea stop at the former Exceat Farmhouse.(which may now be called Saltmarsh, open until 16-00 hrs).For those who prefer to wait for tea until walk-end, you can make use of the ice cream van usually parked up in the car park.
Leg 3 -
Exceat to
Seaford: starts with a short section of road walking to Exceat Bridge where you pass the Cuckmere Inn
(another refreshment option) then head along the Vanguard Way to
Cuckmere Haven ( a swimming opportunity if the tide is in - swimmers, bring your cosies !). Your homeward stretch consists of a stroll along the cliff-tops, with fine views back of the
Severn Sisters. You drop down from the cliffs into the town of
Seaford - another swimming opportunity - and head for the railway station. Close to the station you find a number of pubs and restaurants and, another SWC favourite,
Trawlers Fish and Chip Restaurant, for those peckish after today's long walk..
If you are a new SWC walker who has never tried this walk, it comes with my personal recommendation. Enjoy !
T=1.31
Walk Directions here: L=1.31
Booking to Seaford and jumping on the Glynde train instead is okay? Anyone planning on leaving earlier and doing the 3.1 mile stretch from Lewes to Glynde?
What time do you generally finish this adventure in Seaford?
I have Friday free as well. Would you recommend I do the Seaford to Eastbourne section on Friday or would you recommend I do something entirely different? I'm looking forward to this and thank you in advance!
Regarding the train ticket, it is very very very unlikely that any “on board train staff” will appear between Lewes and Glynde and even more unlikely that they would object to a Seaford return, and if they did you would be in good company because all of us in the group will have the same ticket. If you find anyone willing to start from Lewes, you would have no problem at all as the Seaford return is valid via there.
Seaford to Eastbourne repeats the last 3.9 miles of this walk, but in the opposite direction, in which you actually have the amazing view in front of you. If Glynde to Seaford has one flaw, it is that on then last section you keep wanting to stop to look behind you. So yes, I would say that Seaford to Eastbourne is a perfect thing to do on Friday. It is considered to be one our out finest walks.
This explains it all:
https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/swc/index.shtml
at Exceat too .
jane
Celine
It was hot hot hot on the climb up onto the downs, which was bigger and longer than I remembered it. Up on top there was a bit of a breeze. We got fairly strung out and about half the group I never saw again. I hope the Downs Monster did not get them.
Quite a lot of us ate at the George in Alfriston. It is always nice to eat in this lovely pub with its idyllic garden, but more than one (all right: two) commented that the food was a bit tasteless. Certainly my duck was tough, the red cabbage unemotional and the gravy tasted like it had been made from granules. But fair dos, there are starving people in the world and it filled a hole.
After lunch some tried the Littlington tea room and pronounced it good (there is also a pub in this village that looked like it would make a nice lunch stop). I was enchanted to re make the acquaintance of Friston Forest after so long. Lots stopped to admire the view of the Cuckmere valley: two of us pressed in instead to the Saltmarsh tea room, to be told first that they were about to close (at 4.10pm, when the stated closing time was 5pm) and that we could only have takeaways, and then that we could sit at our table to drink our takeaways. They then let in plenty of other customers, including others in the group, and happily served them tea in china cups. Another puzzling anecdote to add to my planned Book of Outstanding British Customer Service.
Six of us split off at this point to walk to Birling Gap and East Dean. I hope several lots! of the others swam on the west side of Cuckmere Haven and enjoyed an idyllic walk over Seaford Head and had chips on Seaford Beach as the sun set. A separate report about how you all got on would be most welcome.
We splittists went to the east beach at Cuckmere, and despite some cloud build up enjoyed the most wonderful of swims, on a flat calm sea, with soft golden light to the west, the looming cliffs of Haven Brow to the east, and once we had swum about 200 metres out from the shore a grand panorama of the Seven Sisters.
We then enjoyed that most rare of things these days, a walk over a relatively deserted Seven Sisters, the selfie making hordes having departed for the day. Five of us enjoyed a sunset swim at Birling Gap. We walked to East Dean, where two stopped for a brief snack in the Tiger Inn and three of us got an earlier bus to Seaford in pursuit of chips. The Trawlers being by now (9pm) closing, we went to “the other place”, which was OK, if a tad slow. We had a quick drink in the pub in the station and got the 21.25 train. Mercifully the connecting train at Lewes was not that busy and we had a convivial journey home until the Gatwick Invasion with their continent sized suitcases put a stop to it, anyway.
Fellow passengers on the train from Seaford vicariously enjoyed our fish and chips (!) which we had finished prior to arrival at Lewis. The Glynde Opera crowd would have taken a dim view of such loutish behaviour: the train was mobbed and we got separated trying to find seats (twice, as we tried to find empty space when near empty carriages were joined at Haywards Heath).
A big day out in fine weather with great company.
(Thanks as always to the tireless volunteers that post the walks and support the SWC.)