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Hampden Park to Eastbourne Walk

Eastbourne parks, Babylon Down (woods), Jevington, the easterly South Downs, Lullington Heath, Friston Forest, East Dean, Birling Gap, quiet approach to Eastbourne.

East Sussex Long Tough

History

This is a list of previous times this walk has been done by the club (since Jan 2010). For more recent events (since April 2015), full details are shown.

Date Option Post # Weather
Sat, 02-Mar-24 Hampden Park to Eastbourne - Parks, Woods, Heathlands, the easterly South Downs. Via East Dean and Birling Gap to Eastbourne 4
Sat, 11-Mar-23 Hampden Park to Eastbourne [new walk] 4 sunny at first then overcast

Saturday 02-Mar-24

Thomas G

DAC is away

Length: 26.1 km (16.2 mi) [with shorter options, see the webpage or the pdf for details]
Ascent/Descent: 684/679m
Net Walking Time: 6 ½ hours
Toughness: 8 out of 10
Take the 09.24 Eastbourne train from Victoria (09.31 CJ, 09.40 EC), arrives Hampden Park 10.50.
Return trains: xx.05, xx.33.
Buy an Eastbourne Return.
The walk is book-ended by two of Eastbourne’s favourite playgrounds, Hampden Park and Little Chelsea. In between you contour around the woods of Babylon Down and down to Jevington. Then you climb up to the Eastern-most ridges of the South Downs, between Windover Hill and Wilmington Hill, with tantalising sea views, before turning South to the more sheltered terrain of Lullington Heath, Snap Hill and Friston Forest. You visit the twin villages of Friston and East Dean, then finally reach the sea at Birling Gap, only to immediately turn inland again, across quiet farmland to Warren Hill and the final descent into Eastbourne.
Lunch : 4 options in East Dean (14.8 km): The Tiger Inn , Hikers' Rest Coffee Shop , Thai Terre , The Beehive on the Green .
Tea: loads of options in Eastbourne, see the webpage or the pdf.
For summary, map, height profile, photos, walk directions/options and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.403
  • Sun, 03-Mar-24

    Three of us got off the train and were greeted by a sudden hail storm. This would be the reason for the poor turnout we thought. But more fool those who opted to stay in bed as the skies quickly cleared and we could see for miles over the downs and sea.

    At about the six mile point we met one more (making our total 4) who was sitting against a way marker having his lunch. The main group continued to East Dean. The Tiger Inn served us some reasonable food in fifteen minutes.

    The sun was out in the afternoon, though the mud remained as greasy underfoot. Some decent climbs, a few temporary electric fences humming warnings and not a soul to be seen.

Saturday 11-Mar-23

Stargazer

SWC 403: Hampden Park to Eastbourne t=swc.403

Distance: 16.2 Miles or 26 km for those more metrically minded with shortcuts available using the number 12/12X/12A bus

Difficulty: 8 out of 10

Train: Take the 9:24 AM Eastbourne-bound train from London Victoria (stopping at Clapham Junction at 9:31 and East Croydon at 9:40) and arriving in Hampden Park at 10:44. Return trains from Eastbourne are at 05 and 33 past the hour. Buy a day return to Eastbourne.

By special request, this is a new walk exploring both familiar and unfamiliar territory. Although sharing an ending with last week’s walk, this route takes a different more inland journey. The route contours around the woods of Babylon Down and down to Jevington, then climbs up to the Eastern-most ridges of the South Downs, between Windover Hill and Wilmington Hill, with tantalising sea views, before turning South to the more sheltered terrain of Lullington Heath, Snap Hill and Friston Forest. After a brief seaside visit at Birling Gap, the route immediately turns inland again, across quiet farmland to Warren Hill and the final descent in to Eastbourne. Shortcuts are available using the number 12/12X/12A bus – see the walk notes for suggestions.

You can find more information about the walk and download the walk instructions here.

The suggested lunch stop is the Eight Bells in Jevington (5.6 km/4 miles into the walk) if arriving there after 12pm; otherwise, it will be a late lunch at the Tiger Inn in East Dean (14.8km/9 miles into the walk), serving food until 4pm.

Eastbourne has a host of post walk options for drinks or food. Please see the walk notes for various suggestions.

Enjoy the walk!

  • Sat, 11-Mar-23

    It's not easy to concoct a new walk in an area that already has loads of SWC walks covering it, that has very little overlap with those existing walks, provides new aspects to familiar sites or villages and also leads through unfamiliar bits that are different from what one knows of the area from other walks. This one achieves that in my opinion, and is a very good route, with really only a couple of short stretches of road walking that are not that great. The rest was very pleasant at a minimum.

    3 walkers got off the train in sunny weather, and were awaited by the walk author at the station exit. The route out of Eastbourne's suburbia to the Downs looked promising on the map and was indeed very nice, apart from those bits of road walking mentioned above. On to Jevington with fine views towards Hastings and then walking through some pretty and quiet U-shaped combes. The stretch of SDW from Jevington to near The Long Man of Wilmington is familiar of course, but then we turned left along that very pretty combe I always admired, leading to Friston Forest. Plenty of up and down through the forest, and before you know it you are in that extremely pretty village, East Dean, for lunch.

    The landlord at The Tiger Inn was on the Grumpy Old Man-end of the spectrum, but food and drink were good and service quick and attentive, so no complaints.

    Down to Birling Gap with fine views out to Sea and along the 7 Sisters under an overcast sky, tea at the cafe, and on to E'bourne on an inland route, which included several more quiet pretty combes and a fine descent into town, again along an unfamiliar route including a very scenic golf club crossing. There was some spittle in the air for teh last 15 minutes or so...

    Seen: Cattle and Sheep and Shetland Ponies and loads of hang gliders, not only by High-and-Over Hill but also over Beachy Head.

    18.33 train.

    4 sunny at first then overcast