You head West around Newhaven seafront then up to the Victorian fort, with a section of clifftop coast path to follow. Turn inland (North) through woods and across fields to the attractive (but dry) village of Piddinghoe, then follow the River Ouse back to Newhaven, perhaps stopping for lunch. Cross the river, hold your breath and look away from the retail park, then cross the River Ouse Nature Reserve to the built up areas of Denton (a better lunch option) and South Heighton. Head to the Downs, but not too high and pick up the descent from Walk 2/26 (Southease to Seaford). Head East across the hills to Bishopstone on less familiar paths and back to Newhaven following the Mill Creek, pausing to inspect the well-presented excavations at the deserted village of Tide Mills.
Newhaven Circular walk
Newhaven port and fort, Peacehaven cliffs, Piddinghoe, the River Ouse, foothills of the South Downs, Bishopstone and the ‘forgotten village’ of Tide Mills.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun, 01-Sep-24 | Newhaven Circular | 3 | sunny warm and humid with a breeze | |
| Sat, 25-Nov-23 | A port and a fort and some cliffs, the River Ouse, foothills of the South Downs, Bishopstone and the ‘forgotten village’ of Tide Mills: Newhaven Circular | 4 | sunny | |
| Sat, 07-May-22 | Newhaven Circular - [New Walk] | 11 | largely dry |
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Fri, 30-Aug-24
Thinking of joining this but have not joined one of the walls on here before. Can I contact you for a quick chat?
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Sun, 01-Sep-24
3 SWC-ies extricated themselves from a very busy Seaford bound train full of Generation Selfie folk and started in already high temperatures. The forecast had been overly pessimistic as is its wont, because what we found was sunny warm and humid with a breeze weather. We thoroughly enjoyed it, with the strong sun brightening up the colour of the sea below and of the faraway arable fields, some already harvested, others not yet. Far views were fine, if a little hazy though.
We hit The Ouse with it being quite full but with outgoing tide and found a new (ie refurbished with flats on top after years of closure) pub with food offerings in Newhaven to pause for lunch.
1 walker bailed out not long after we had passed the ex Parker Pen Factory site to go to the beach.
On and up the Downs and down and up along them to Bishopstone and through Tidemills (1 egret spotted there) to Newhaven, where we popped into The Engineer, a very friendly pub, for a refresher before the 18.37 back home.
You head West around Newhaven seafront then up to the Victorian fort, with a section of clifftop coast path to follow. Turn inland (North) through woods and across fields to the attractive (but dry) village of Piddinghoe, then follow the River Ouse back to Newhaven, perhaps stopping for lunch. Cross the river, hold your breath and look away from the retail park, then cross the River Ouse Nature Reserve to the built up areas of Denton (a better lunch option) and South Heighton. Head to the Downs, but not too high and pick up the descent from Walk 2/26 (Southease to Seaford). Head East across the hills to Bishopstone on less familiar paths and back to Newhaven following the Mill Creek, pausing to inspect the well-presented excavations at the deserted village of Tide Mills.
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Sat, 25-Nov-23
4 met at Newhaven Town Station including one who last walked with SWC before Covid. The weather was sunny and cold, but not windy. Great views from the Coast Path (now showing on the on-line OS map as the King Charles 3rd Coast Path !?!) of the Rampion Wind Farm and Brighton. The path goes surprisingly close to the rather crumbly looking cliff edge.
The route looks somewhat built-up on the map but brought us from the cliff over the A259 and onto the open country approaching Piddinghoe without my being aware of how close we were to Peacehaven. At this point one walker stopped to take a phone call and although we waited a while at the next junction was not seen again.
Looping around via Piddinghoe Church and the banks of the Ouse, we returned to lunch in Newhaven , one on a bench on Denton Island and two at the Ark – good value and tasty food, served very quickly. We were in and out in 35 minutes but the picnic-er had moved on. The walk up onto the Downs certainly warmed us up and on the way back into town we met the picnic-er who had taken a slightly different route. We decided against the Tide Mills section – interesting but better for a longer warmer day. Though the full moon might have helped. A walk with a good mix of landscapes.
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Sat, 07-May-22
7 off the train (5 via Lewes, 2 via Brighton), met by the walk author, up from Bishopstone, 1 car driver from Shoreham and one car driver from Siebeneichen (Sevenoaks) who had parked at Glynde and walked in from there. After the morning loop, we bumped into walker 11 in Newhaven, who had taken an early train and finished at lunchtime to be back in London early. It was overcast in the morning, and pm we had a couple of rain clouds passing over us: largely dry .
A fine new route, varied with plenty of views along the coastal stretch from Seaford Head to Brighton, many scenic downs and some pretty side valleys, plus some very interesting historic sites in the Castle and the Tide Mill village. Newhaven is navigated through without much offence. All of it without much if any overlap with other walks.
We saw skylarks, egrets and cormorants (the latter two in the Ouse), young rabbits and sheep, plenty snails and a slow worm, and even some bluebells, several good patches of flowering wild garlic and pastures full of buttercups.
4 lunched at The Flying Fish (friendly and with good food), and were joined there by 2 picknickers. Soon after lunch, Glynde man walked on over the Downs, where we turned right.
17.58 train from Newhaven Harbour.