Low tide is at 17.24 today. The west side of Cuckmere Beach, the part visited on this walk, is not good for swimming at low tide - you would have a long and tedious walk out over the rocks and then shallow water covering rocks to get to a decent depth.

The east side, under Haven Brow, is better. In past years there has been a relatively sandy section in the centre of this beach that is easy to wade out over. After your swim the tide would probably still be low enough to wade the river mouth (some form of waterproof footwear needed for this: don’t try to do it barefoot) to resume the walk over Seaford Head. Or you could walk back up to the road to get one of the very frequent coastal buses to Seaford. (Note that the buses no longer seem to serve the Cuckmere Inn: only the Visitor Centre, where the tearoom is.)

Another idea for swimmers might be to take the Cuckmere Community Bus number 47 from Alfriston’s main square to the Visitor Centre. It runs hourly at 08 past the hour till 17.08. This would give you more time to swim, though swimming from the east beach would still probably be tricky after about 3pm.

Seaford is swimable at any state of the tide (unless the sea is rough, which looks unlikely today)

By the way, the above-mentioned number 47 bus also goes from Berwick station to Alfriston at 00 past the hour, if you want to be very lazy and just do the afternoon of this walk…

22 at the start of this walk (along with two other walking groups, thankfully not seen again), after a very busy journey from Victoria on the 8.54 train. God knows what the 9.54 would have been like…. I understand one started from Berwick, so 23 .

All those people flocking to the coast had perhaps not paid close attention to the weather forecast. We had mostly bright high cloud with very sticky heat . Quite enervating at times.

10-12 of us lunched at the George Inn, which was not as busy as in former days - the cost of living crisis kicking in perhaps? After lunch things fragmented a bit, which is to say various groups of walkers left at different times. However some of us mysteriously coalesced as we neared Exceat.

…Only to fragment again. I wanted tea, but no one else did. I wanted to swim from the east side at Cuckmere Haven, but again this got no support. One kind soul did accompany me, and we more or less located the sandy section of sea floor and had a nice swim, going out about 150 metres but never being more than waist deep.

Afterwards, wading the Cuckmere river was…interesting. Even at low tide it is deeper than it looks. Swimming shoes are definitely advised.

All others, I assume, did the normal walk and several, I understand, swam at Seaford, where it was finally properly sunny. When I got there, I also had a swim, and joined two others in the pub. There we discovered the trains were up the duff due to a broken down train. I suggested a bus to Newhaven (from where trains were running). Interestingly, when we got this, many others in the group got on the bus at the Seaford station stop, having been given similar advice by railway staff. Despite an irritating detour round residential roads, we all got there in time for a 19.31 train to Lewes.

Thence to London, four of us sharing a bottle of wine. The train back, while not empty, was mercifully less busy than the outward one

Don't forget you can have tea at Litlington Tea Gardens, just slightly off the route when you get to Litlington village after Alfriston.

7 SWC regulars assembled at Lewes for the train to Glynde, and we took under our wing a solo walker from Canada who was armed with the instructions, making8 on a beautiful sunny day with an occasional cool breeze .

After passing through Firle and admiring the plentiful orchids on the way up to Firle Beacon, we were in for a bit of a surprise as we started to see a long continuous line of people heading along the Downs. They were doing the "mighty hike" walk from Brighton to Eastbourne for Macmillan and there were literally thousands of them (somebody told us 2,000). We were immersed in a human river of green T-shirts all the way to Litlington. Three of us paused at the long barrow to have a snack and take stock. We regrouped at the green in Alfriston for a picnic lunch, then rejoined the stream of sponsored walkers for the walk along the river to Litlington. At that point five of us went for an early tea at the Litlington tea garden recommended by Sylvia, certainly a beautiful spot but maybe a bit early for the sumptuous cakes provided.

On to Exceat via the charming forest route, which was pronounced more hilly than the "High and Over" alternative. Great view of the horse though. One got the bus from Exceat having an evening engagement (as did one of the non-tea-drinkers I hear) and the rest proceeded along the river, with sponsored walkers still streaming along the opposite bank, to Cuckmere and then Seaford. We met our ace swimming and nature correspondent there, who reported that the sea was too wild (and indeed no-one was swimming) but he had seen some tortoiseshells. Five of us repaired to the excellent Steamworks which was quieter than usual, before getting various trains.

Although I've walked a lot on this route, it's the first time I've done the whole walk from Glynde to Seaford as described in book 1 so it was great to have done that especially on such a lovely day with great company.

Just beyond Alfriston six girls doing D of E gathered round something in the grass. “It is a bumble bee!” said one. Her friend then stamped on it. The young. All that effort we put into taking them on school trips to nature reserves to see “mini-beasts”. Biodiversity will be safe in their hands….

I’m thinking of doing this walk but on a later train as I’m not sure I can make the 8.54.

As far as I can see the trains are running every hour. Or is there something going on with the trains that I’m missing?

Probably to accommodate swimmers and the heat

If you want to frequent the Sailing Club, which is the only seafront cafe in Seaford, continue to the far end of the promenade and get the train back from Bishopstone station. There is more information here: http://sailinginsussex.org/galley/

My favourite walk!

The train from Victoria was full - with Meet-Up groups, a CLOG group and some SWCers. On arriving at Lewes the SWC contingent found its connecting train to Glynde had been cancelled, with an hours wait until the next one. After a bit of head scratching we opted to take taxis to the walk-start - which worked well, supplemented by one car driver kindly giving lifts to three walkers. Three others had escaped the train disruption by taking earlier trains out of London, and some took later trains, so quoting walk numbers today is a bit hit and miss - but let's say 16.

We were most fortunate with the weather. The forecast was not too promising, with showers - some heavy - predicted, but it did not rain until some of us were on the train home. It was a bit humid in the morning, but with a pleasant breeze on top of the Downs. The sun came out mid afternoon and the last leg of the walk along the cliff tops to Seaford was glorious. Before that, in the morning, I have never seen the South Downs Way so busy - horse riders, mountain bikers, runners, walkers et al - and how nice to see some families out in force. Alfriston was also busy and some of us managed to be fed at the George and the Smugglers pubs before embarking on the two afternoon legs of the walk. Admirers of butterflies would have enjoyed today - they were everywhere and lots of different species as well.

On reaching Cuckmere Haven I don't believe anyone was tempted to take to the waters - and the sea at Seaford was considered too rough for safe swimming. So instead some took tea on the promenade whilst others enjoyed a drink or two at the comfy pub in the railway station premises. The trains seemed to be running to schedule from Seaford to Lewes and Brighton, but some London bound trains from Lewes were cancelled during the early part of the evening - I hope everyone managed to get home safely eventually.

Apart from the minor inconvenience of some travel disruption (understandable during the Pingdemic) most seemed to enjoy their day over the South Downs to the sea.

Five of us met at Glynde more or less on time including two new / newish walkers One by train from Lewes. The London train made an extra stop at Glynde to make up for the cancellation. Three of us came from the Eastbourne direction but the taxi group had departed. We stopped at The Ram in Firle for a swift half where we were passed by another who had walked from Lewes. After lunch at The George I walked back to Berwick for the car and collected Joanna from Litlington tea garden

As far as I know the rest of our group made it to Seaford.

Thank you, John for your additional report. If only there had been an announcement on our train from London about the additional stop, then we would not have disembarked at Lewes !!

With your numbers I now make it we mustered 21

Hello from Charleston SC, USA. I will be in London all of next week until Sunday and would love to join you on this hike.

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!

You are very welcome to join us. It is a fabulous walk and a lovely slice of England.

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.

Do be aware, by the way, of how our walks work: we have no leaders.

This explains it all:

https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/swc/index.shtml

Intend to leave the walk at Exceat and catch a bus to Eastbourne. If cafe is busy at Exceat might break journey at East Dean for tea there

The Litlington Tea room, after Alfriston and before Exceat, was always a lovely place to visit. I don't think it would be far off the route.

Hi. New to SWC. Great site. Can you recommend a walk in the vicinity of Lewes/Seaford/Eastbourne that is well or partly wooded. Thanks for your help.

i hope to attend this walk and amay leave it

at Exceat too .

jane

I'll join from Clapham Junction and hopefully find you :)

Celine

I assume if you leave the walk at Exceat and catch a bus to Eastbourne then you probably need to buy a day return to Eastbourne? (unfortunately a little more expensive)

36 on this walk, comprised of 33 on the specified train, plus three that were late for various reasons and caught us up. The train from Victoria was - predictably given the hot sunny weather - packed, and those that got on at Clapham Junction or East Croydon stood all the way to Lewes. The Glynde train was relatively quiet, however.

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.

A further group of 8 South Downs explorers went for the traditional menu: a refreshing swim at Cuckmere Haven (those whose attention wandered to the sky were treated with a fire rainbow display), onward to Seaford for further refreshment at the Plough (excellent Harvey's and Longman beers plus medicinal tonics) and a visit to Trawlers en route to the station to ensure that the proprietors would not be wasting any of their food at closing time.

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.)

A great day out. Some of us picnickers who ate by the church in Alfriston walked on to the delightfully gladed tea gardens in Litlington, home made cakes and plenty of tea options. This would be worth adding to the lunch/tea options for the walk, although a little bit soon after Alfriston if you have lunched there, summer time only because it's open air. It knocks spots off the Exceat tea place. Six had tea, then we split at Exceat four to the west of Cuckmere and two to the east. We split again at the western beach, two off to Seaford and two had a very nice dip in the calm sea at Cuckmere Haven. Walking along Seaford Head the sea and sky looked beautiful as the sunlight shone through. We then bumped into three more in the platform bar at Seaford station, where the beer and the 'mystery pie' was going down well (the bar staff weren't sure of the content of the pie). Two of us took our drinks on to the 7.25pm train (quiet) and got on another quiet train at Lewes homeward bound. Thanks for posting this great walk!

Will take the later 09.46 train for the short walk option, and bus it from Exceat.

a few of us will join you with the late start

on 9:46am train

About 50-odd walkers got off the train at Lewes, most of them though were part of a Meetup-group heading for Southease, so as for the SWC: 12 off the train at Lewes, meeting 1 other who had taken a bus from Brighton, mostly fetching hot drinks from the on-platform cafe and awaiting the Glynde train. At Glynde we immediately cut out 5-10 mins of walking by following the road through the village and "braving" the A-road crossing, later had a look at West Firle church and were still all together once on top of the Downs. Plenty of hanggliders were doing what hanggliders do, the views were quite good, and the breeze cold but not too cold, all under grey skies all day . It stayed dry and towards the end it even looked like there were some specks of blue-ish sky, but the sun was never seen.

We then caught up with an SWC stalwart, who had missed the train, taken the next one 30 mins later to Lewes and from there one of the Cuckmere Buses to West Firle, so 14 on this variant of the walk.

Arriving at Alfriston early, at 12.30, the walk poster argued for pushing on to Litlington to try out the pub there, The Plough & Harrow, and a good decision it was: so they were fully booked, but the 4 lunchers found stools at the bar and after 45 minutes for food and coffee we were back out! Friendly staff, good food and beer and an efficient operation, all you can ask for really.

The sandwichers had marched on and called in for a coffee break at the cafe in Exceat, so we caught up with them again at Seaford Head. One last push up the Downs - and another small down and up - and finally Seaford was in sight.

Most pulled into The Old Plough, some into the (is it new?) station cafe and bar. 16.25 train.

No sign all day of anyone having taken a later train...

There were five on the 9.46, three of whom decided to start the walk from Southease which had an earlier connecting train. (The other two dematerialised en route to Lewes but later reported walking from Lewes to Saltdean) After lunch/tea in the Singing Kettle in Alfriston the Southease walkers met one even later starter who had walked from Glynde. All four walked to Exceat where the unremitting gloom of the day was relieved by light from the river and sea. One stopped to admire view. The other three jumped on a bus which arrived as they reached the road. Two caught the 17.25 from Seaford after a drink.

So total 20, the two who did Lewes to Saltdean had lunch at The Abergavenny Arms in Rodmell. The pub was packed and we were offered seats by the bar and later moved to a table when became avaliable. Really friendly staff and food was gorgeous even for us gourmet diners, top marks - no wonder the pub was full. We caught bus from Saltdean to Brighton and 16:33 train back to London.

A special mention for the wonderful views of the Seven Sisters from the cliffs above Cuckmere. The sea was the most wonderful colour.

Two major chalk cliff falls at Seaford Head recently. Keep well away from cliff edge, at least 25m.

A surprisingly low turnout for the best walk in Book 1 - just 4 of us.

The day started strangely. Of the three who alighted from the London train at Lewes, one immediately got on the wrong onward train (to Seaford instead of Glynde) and had to catch a bus to Alfriston. Another took possession of a four foot flower cutting from Lewes Station's fine garden display, and proceeded to walk with it over the Downs, but stopped en route at the Ram Inn, Firle, for a tincture for

herself and her flower. The two semi-normal ones ? left then set out on the walk in dull overcast but mostly dry conditions , warm and slightly humid, with no wind, even on top of the Downs.

The four were eventually reunited at the George, Alfriston where all enjoyed an excellent lunch sitting outdoors, now in slight drizzle. Our flower lady took the bus to Seaford, leaving three to negotiate leg 2 - and very nice, too. The descent to Exceat is always lovely. Onwards on leg 3 on the Vanguard Way to Cuckmere Haven, where we resisted the temptation to skinny- dip (mustn't scare the horses), but instead set out on the cliff top walk, now in steady drizzle, talking care along the way, as Pete B had warned, recent land slips having made sections of the walk potentially dangerous. We skipped tea and caught the 17-57 hrs train from Seaford, and were back in London at 19-30 hrs, having enjoyed a lovely walk, in slightly strange circumstances.

Thanks Walker, great suggestions. I may be going mad but Accuweather doesn't seem to have the strong gusts that the BBC weather forecast shows. The storm is due in at 2am and so will have hopefully have abated before we are out on our respective walks.

Cross fingers!

I am possibly starting to get a cold, so may not be able to come with maps tomorrow after all. I will see how I feel....

Let's hope both storms and virus blow through quickly....

I'm going whatever the weather. If trains are disrupted, I won't be at Victoria as I live south of the river and get on the train en route so I'll get the next one and continue on the Glynde to Seaford walk.

Actually, famous last words, but the bug seems to be going away again. I am feeling a lot better than I did at lunch time. So while I am not definitely Main Engines Start on this one, I am certainly resuming countdown. Latest BBC weather forecast I have seen says "blustery" but not "damaging gusts", but check for yourself.

20 on this walk despite the dire forecast. It was lashing with rain on the train down but once we got off it was very windy but also reasonably sunny and the only rain was a brief intense shower at tea time.

There was some discussion about whether to go up on the South Downs ridge, given the wind, but SWC walkers are made of stern stuff and most (all?) of us did. It was indeed very windy but steadily so rather than gusty, and not enough to impede walking. I will put a video on our Facebook page to show what it was like.

A few had lunch in the George in Alfriston, some had sandwiches in the dhurchyard: not sure what the rest did. In the afternoon the walk to Exceat was more sheltered. Three of us got to tea at the Saltmarsh only to be told as soon as we sat down that the owner had told them to shut due to high winds to come.

We joined others in the Cuckmere Inn just down the road and there was some consideration of the possible dangers of crossing Seaford Head in the high winds, but in the end a lot of us did so anyway. The wind came and went at first but on the top it did indeed get very tricky, with gusts intense enough to stop us in our tracks at times. I worried about getting blown over. Small bits of chalk from the clifftop also flew into us at times, something I have never experienced before. We survived, though, and descending to the seafront at Seaford met with an extraordinary scene: huge waves - 2 metres plus - the golden late afternoon sun misted with sea spray, darker clouds to the west. Unforgettable.

We went inland to have chips but most decided when they got there that they were not hungry and rushed to the train station. Two of us persuaded the Trawlers to let us jump the queue so we could get our takeaway and still make the same train, the 6.28 But getting to the platform with two minutes to spare we saw the 6.25 (for such it was: my mistake) pulling out. So dinner on a platform bench and then the usual Southern saga on the way home - train delayed at Haywards Heath because the connection was 25 minutes late, switch to a Thameslink train, change at East Croydon yadda yadda....

Sitting eating lunch near the church, I somehow managed to miss the later group leaving at lunchtime so did the second half of the walk on my own. I managed not to get blown into the sea (luckily the wind was blowing me inland, rather than towards the cliff) but it was hard work walking against it. Nonetheless, the views were as lovely as ever and it was at least warm and dry. I got the 19.25 train from Seaford. I heard rumour that a few sensible walkers did the lowland morning route via Charlston Farmhouse and Berwick Church. It sounds very nice and I've noted it for future windy days.

Five opted for the valley route to morning tea and cake at Charleston farmhouse, lunch at the Cricketers Arms in Berwick, and afternoon tea at Badgers in Alfriston, with yet more cake (but sadly not the Victoria sponge cake with gooseberry jam for which they are rightly famed). Slow bus from Exeat to Brighton Station for four, meeting the fifth again, on the 7.18 Gatwick Express, he having managed to fit in at least one train journey and an alleged rendezvous in Lewes with the main group, since going awol at Exeat. Amazing. Less than optimal on the swimming but a grand day out.