East Sussex

Walk Details:
Date: 14/5/2005
Total ascent: 22m/ 72ft
Total distance walked: 0.3 miles
Walk difficulty: 1/10
Enjoyment rating: 2.5/10
Best bits: Good views, friendly parking attendant, ice cream van
Worst bits: The worst honeypot yet, parking charges
Walkers: Anth, Jim
Car Parking: The nearest public car park is at TQ 330 133

Top details:
Name: Ditchling Beacon
County top number: 72 of 207
Marilyn number: 15 of 1552
Grid reference: TQ 33164 13071 View Map
Height above sea level: 248m/ 813ft
How nice was the top? 3/10
Views: 4.5/10
Description/Notes: The highest point in East Sussex is marked by a trig point. It’s also a marilyn.

The Walk:

Given that this county top was also a marilyn, we’d intended to treat it with a bit of respect. We’d planned to park in the village of Westmeston at the bottom of the South Downs escarpment, and therefore walk rather than drive up as much of Ditchling Beacon as possible. However, fate was to conspire against us. First of all, we couldn’t find any free parking spaces in Westmeston (at least, none that wouldn’t annoy the villagers). Secondly, we’d been later than planned leaving home this morning and were running a little behind schedule – a longer walk from, say, Ditchling village itself was therefore not a viable option if we were to bag all the hills we wanted to. Thirdly a cold drizzle & icy breeze added to the “lets stay in the warm dry car until we’re as close to the top as possible” factor. Thus we shamefully drove to the trainer brigade right close to the top of the hill.

We were punished for our indolence though. There was a charge of £1 to park there, but at least the parking attendant was a friendly chap who seemed genuinely interested in our quest. It was certainly tourist central – in addition to the parking attendant, the car park was host to an ice cream van and, even in this dire weather, was still overflowing with cars and (strangely) a large fridge freezer!

From the car park it took a matter of a few minutes to follow the South Downs Way up to the top of Ditchling Beacon. It would probably have been quicker but for the fact that we had to pretty much queue our way up the hill. We were starting to think that the South Downs Way would be a bit of a pig to walk long distance – you certainly wouldn’t get any peace or quiet. Fortunately no one else seemed to be interested in the trig point which was situated ten metres or so away from the path, so we were able to take our photos in peace. There was a grand (but slightly misty) view to the north from here, but the day-trippers were not stopping to admire it – they just continued to pour over the hill in both directions. We idly wondered where they were all off to.

The job done we returned to the car park, feeling that perhaps we hadn’t got our money’s worth from the parking fee, and headed off to our next county top.