Seven Sisters Hiking Adventure & Eastbourne Airshow

On this dramatic cliff top walk we will be passing Cuckermere Haven, the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head as the South Downs meets the sea. It will end with Eastbourne promenade and pier.

THE CLOSER WE GET TO EASTBOURNE THE BETTER THE VIEW OF THE AERIAL DISPLAY WE WILL HAVE. THEREFORE FOR THIS PARTICULAR HIKE IT'S ADVISABLE WE CONTINUE WALKING WITH A LUNCH STOP CLOSER TO EASTBOURNE THAN ON PREVIOUS HIKES.

As we approach Eastbourne we will be able to gaze into the skies to see the Airshow in full flow. It's a unique opportunity so do join us.

This classic cliff-top walk – one of the finest coastal walks in England – affords stunning (and very famous) views of the white cliffs of the Seven Sisters, and the renowned Beachy Head. There is quite a lot of climbing and descending on the walk – indeed, apart from the section around CuckmereHaven and along the Eastbourne seafront, almost none of the route is flat – but somehow in the grandeur of the scenery the effort is not noticed.

What's included:

• the guided hike
• fees
• return train tickets ( all handled by us).

Length: 22.3km (13.8 miles), seven hours walking time. For the whole outing including travel and meals, allow 12 hours.

Toughness: 9 out of 10

Meeting Time: 9AM

You will be taking 09:23 train from Clapham Junction to Seaford via Lewes. The host will wait for everyone next to the ticket offices at the main entrance from 08.50am until 9:10. At 9:10 you will make your way to the platform. You will arrive in Seaford at 10.45

Meeting point: The host will be waiting for you at the main entrance - the one with Sainsbury's by the ticket offices.

Please give yourself enough time to find the meeting point - it is quite a large station and has many entrances, please check the TFL journey planner for any planned engineering works and please allow enough time for any unplanned disruptions to your journey. If you are late and miss the group no refunds will be provided.

HISTORY

Martello Tower in Seaford is the most westerly of a chain of 103 such fortresses (the other end of the chain being in Aldeburgh, Suffolk) built to protect the South East coast of England against invasion in the early part of the Napoleonic Wars. It contains a museum of local history, open 11am to 1pm and 2.30pm to 4.30pm on Sundays and bank holidays year round, and on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons in summer.

The Seven Sisters is the name for the undulating cliffs between Cuckmere Have and Birling Gap. They are thought to have been formed by glacier meltwater at the end of the last Ice Age: the meltwater carved steep sided valleys, which were then truncated by sea erosion into the cliffs we see today.

The original Seven Sisters are the Pleiades, a group of seven stars which Greek mythology portrayed as sisters. There are in fact now only six Pleiades, one having exploded in antiquity, and from the approach to Cuckmere Haven there seem to be only six humps on the Seven Sisters too.

But there are in fact seven: one is hidden from view from this angle. Or are there eight? Careful attention to the walk text will reveal that between Cuckmere Haven and Birling Gap, you pass over eight hills in all – Haven Brow, Short Brow, Rough Brow, Brass Point, Flagstaff Point, Flat Hill, Baily’s Hill and Went Hill. So which one is not a real sister?

Belle Tout is a former lighthouse that first entered service in 1828, over 130 years after the need for one was first suggested. It had 30 oil lamps, requiring two gallons of oil per hour. A problem with the lighthouse’s location soon became apparent, however – when the weather was bad, the clifftop tended to be shrouded in mist, so the light could not be seen. The cliff also blocked the view of the light from ships sailing too close to the shore.

As a result, a new lighthouse was built – the one that still stands at the base of Beachy Head to this day. It opened in 1902, and Belle Tout went out of commission. It was a tea room for a while, accidentally damaged by Canadian artillery during World War II, and later restored by the local council.

By the 1990s Belle Tout was a private house and in danger of falling into the sea due to cliff erosion, and so in March 1999 in a feat of engineering that captured national media attention, it was moved back 17 metres away from the cliff using hydraulic jacks. It was then bought by a preservation trust and in March 2010 started a new life as a luxury bed and breakfast, with the lattern room turned into a lounge with 360 degree views.

Weather: Please make sure that you are dressed appropriately for the weather (make sure to bring either your waterproofs or a sunscreen). We will not cancel the trip unless the conditions make it dangerous for us to make the walk. If the trip was cancelled you would, of course, be refunded.