The complete South Downs Way, stretching for a hundred miles over a rare large area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in crowded southern Britain, follows the chalk (soft limestone) ridge just to the North of the popular seaside towns on the Sussex and Hampshire coast. At intervals the hilly downlands are broken by "Wind gaps" or river valleys, mixing the ridge walking with some meandering visits to beautiful rivers such at the Cuckmere, Arun, Ouse and Meon with their associated villages. Most of the route is ancient, made up out of the old droving roads that took animals and goods between the market towns of the region. There are many historical features, including a couple of remaining round towered Saxon churches, ancient "Dew Ponds" providing water on the high Downs for cattle, cross dykes and tumulus burial sites, Bronze Age Hill forts and rings.
The weather on average is some of the best you could find in the British Isles, and soft boots or even trekking shoes are generally advised, as the surfaces are often -but not universally - dry and firm. The tour is accessible easily from London and the Southeast by the railways.
The original 'Way' extended the 80 miles or so between Eastbourne and Buriton near Petersfield, but was extended in the late 1980s to Winchester making it exactly 100 miles. Sherpa offers both versions, as either 8 or 10 day holidays. This is generally a leisurely paced walk enabling those who want, to spend a bit of extra time looking at Some old churches, or dawdling by Cuckmere Haven, picnicking or pubbing up on some high down, or looking around lowland villages. There are however a couple of long days towards the end, largely due to the remoteness of convenient enroute accommodation. For this reason we have to compromise and there is a range in the quality of the overnight stops that we may use.

General Information

Duration of tour: 8 days (7 nights) or 10 days (9 nights)

Season: April to mid October

Joining point:  Alfriston (for Eastbourne)

End of tour: Buriton (Petersfield) in Hampshire, on the 8 day tour or Winchester in Hampshire, on the 10 day tour.

Breakfast: in the UK will generally consist of sausage, bacon, eggs etc, cereals and fruit will also be available. It is important for you to tell us if you have any dietary requirements when you book your holiday so that we can inform everyone that you are staying with.

Baths: it is not normal for your room to have a bath, the main reason being that it takes up a lot of space, some hotels/guesthouses may have a separate room in the house where a bath is available to guests, but in the main it is showers.

Single Supplements: are payable on most of our tours. 1) The single supplement guarantees the privacy of your own room, however, rooms can at times be small and in some places may not enjoy the same facilities as double/twin rooms. 2) You are not just paying a supplement on the room but the luggage transfer costs you are paying in full. The cost of moving 1 bag or 2 bags etc remains the same. On some of our trips it is possible to reduce the cost of the single supplement if you happen to be a 3^rd person travelling, or have chosen a date when other clients are booked.

Luggage: When staying in hotels, sometimes your luggage will have been taken to you room awaiting your arrival. However don’t be surprised if your luggage is waiting for you to take it up to your room. 

Getting to the Start

Outward journey from London to starting point:

By train from London Victoria to Berwick (Sussex). Hourly service during the day, changing at Lewes, normally taking 1hr 30 mins.  At Berwick you can catch a short bus or taxi ride to Alfriston.

Inward journey to London at end of tour: From Petersfield (8 day tour) trains at least twice hourly to London taking 1 hour 20mins. From Winchester (10 day tour) there are direct trains to London Waterloo. There are as many as 4 services an hour taking just over an hour. Services are direct. 

Your Accommodation

Please note that below we described our usual accommodations. If they are not available for the dates that you book we will endeavor to use alternative  accommodation of a similar standard:

Nights 1 & 2: In Alfriston: A (modernized!) 13^th century Inn which combines the charm of ancient tradition with comfortable accommodation. The place was well known to smugglers, who brought their stash up the Cuckmere River. It was also a drinking venue for troops awaiting embarkation to fight in the Napoleonic wars. There is also a Sanctuary Post, where people on the run could claim protection if they managed to touch the wood.

Night 3: In Rodmell Our  small guesthouse is run by Mrs Frasier who will make you more than welcome tonight. Note that if it is a Sunday or Monday evening when you arrive in Rodmell, she will prepare you a snack meal for about £6 (paid locally) as the pub is closed for evening meals on these days. Alternatively we use Sunnyside Cottage who will again make you more than welcome. There is a limited amount of accommodation in this village. 

Night 4: At Clayton we stay at a country pub with pleasant rooms and outlook near to the local windmills. Good food and beer are available.

Night 5: Steyning has an excellent hotel in the High Street where we stay, and it is a favourite of the tour. Once a Georgian Merchant’s house, built in 1772, it has been sympathetically converted into a charming ten bedroom Bed & Breakfast Hotel, offering the personal attention and comfort associated with a small, privately owned establishment. In the lounge there is a fully licensed bar with an adjoining Victorian conservatory overlooking the attractive country garden.

Night 6 : In Amberley  our cottage is in a marvellous rural setting. Rooms have excellent elevated views of the “Wildbrooks.” They are not ensuite but have “luxury” private bath  rooms. There is also an extra washroom and drying room if you are really mucky from the walk.  
Night 7:  In Cocking we stay at a splendid little listed building dating back to 1815. They cannot make their rooms ensuite because they would have to knock down protected walls. Walkers are especially welcome and drying facilities are available on request. Each room is decorated to the highest standard, retaining the original charm of the place, which also forms the popular village tearooms.

10 day tour extension accommodation:

Night 8:  At East Meon we are a little off the route, but we have found a nice guesthouse below the Downs. It is set in a three-acre garden, on a quiet country lane about half a mile above the picturesque Doomesday village. The house is surrounded by open farmland and most of the rooms have  superb views of the Downs.

Night 9: In Winchester:  We stay at a charming Victorian brick-and-flint house ideally situated in a quiet street in an old part of the town near the Cathedral, Winchester College and a few minutes' walk from the centre. All bedrooms are light and comfortable with garden views, and have colour televisions and tea/coffee facilities, these are non ensuite, however.

Please note that a couple of the accommodations on this tour are not ensuite, and although we try to book them, the availability of ensuite rooms is not guaranteed in some of the other night stops.

Included

Bed and breakfast accommodation with ensuite facilities where available.  Luggage transfers from Inn to Inn during the tour, and transfer from Alfriston to Eastbourne on day 2 and transfer from Cocking  to Petersfield on day 8 (of the 8 day tour). Full route book, with maps and notes on finding your accommodation locations.

Extend your stay

Extra nights:  Extra nights are possible at any point in the tour! Please contact Sherpa.

PLEASE NOTE: It is generally normal practice when staying in hotels that you check-in on or after 2pm and checkout by 10am the following morning. Guesthouses/bed & breakfast establishments are normally check-in on or after 4pm and checkout by 10am.

Outline Itinerary

Day 1: Alfriston: Travel to Alfriston, explore the Mediaeval town and amble by the Cuckmere River.  This is one of the most beautiful villages in the Downs. The large church in the village is often called "the Cathedral of the Downs". The village is also home to the first property of the National trust, Clergy House. It is said that the site of the Star Inn is where Alfred burnt his cakes. Alfred gave the area to one of his warlords, Aelfric, as a fief in reward for battle valour.

Day 2:  Eastbourne - Alfriston: (12 miles/19.3km from Eastbourne Station) A Fantastic walk in reasonable weather conditions. After breakfast you will be transported to Eastbourne. You could have a quick look along the Victorian Promenade (an ice cream perhaps?) and then start the walk up to Beachy Head cliffs overlooking the famous Lighthouse. Rollercoaster along the “Seven Sisters” group of chalk down cliffs, until the scenery changes at Cuckmere Haven, a real beauty spot where the Cuckmere river meanders lazily down to the sea. Walk up the valley and across hillside footpaths to Littlington with its attractive pub and tea shoppes before the last section across watermeadows back into Alfriston.

Day 3: Alfriston  - Rodmell (9.5 miles/ 15.2km) The Way rises up onto the high Downs reaching a high point on this section at Firle Beacon. Walk across farmland, until you reach the River Ouse gap near Rodmell. Fans of the Bloomsbury group of Bohemian artists will be keen to make an off route  diversion to Alciston, Berwick and West Firle with various pubs and teashops. Rodmell Village has a pub and the “Monk’s House, where Virginia Woolf used to live.

Day 4:  Rodmell - Clayton: (14 miles/ 22.5 km) After the Ouse the trail climbs above the historic town of Lewes.  This section takes you up onto the highest parts of the Downs, round the back of the Brighton and Worthing conurbation, following mainly grassy tracks. You go over the highest point on the route at Ditchling Beacon 248 m . You may find an ice cream van up here in summer. Eventually, passing lark filled skies, the white “Jack and Jill“ Clayton windmills greet you on your descent down to Clayton.

Day 5:  Clayton - Steyning: (10 miles/ 16 km) The route ascends and descends via the “Devil’s Dyke” – said to be the World’s largest chalk dry valley. There is a pub restaurant here, great views and circular walks that you can do if you want to spend more time on the  heights. We then walk on  through the parish of Upper Beeding  to  drop down to the Ardur River Valley. There follows another lovely stretch of The Downs with great views down to the villages below and ancient historical features abound such as Tumuli burial mounds and cross dykes. We descend off the Down to Steyning, a busy little country town with some nice shops.

Day 6:  Steyning – Amberley: (11 miles/ 17.7km) Commence with a steep climb up to the fascinating Chanctonbury Ring – a Bronze Age hill fort settlement with one or two ghost stories attached to it. The Way then drops steeply to cross the A24 road and then climbs once again for the leg above the town of Storrington, where beautiful Downland  trails or a minor road  from Chantry Post, can be used to make a pub diversion  to this town.  The trail etches its way over the fields and through pockets of forest to reach and descend to the attractive Triptych of villages: Amberley, Houghton and Bury on the lazily meandering River Arun. This is a beautiful rural setting, looking up at Downs rather than down from Ups.

Day 7: Amberley  - Cocking  (12 miles/ 19.3 km) The Way next follows flinty trails up Bury Hill, from where there is a footpath off The Downs to the Roman Villa remains at Bignor, and continues over Bignor Hill and its viewpoint (225m). There are many interesting historical features today including a couple of minutes on the Roman Road called Stane Street that connected Chichester with London. You could practice your navigation trying to find the Neolithic Camp just off of the route. Chichester Cathedral is also visible seaward. Descending into the Dry valley of the A285, there is then a steep climb up to a point from where it is about 0.25 miles South (off route); to the highest point on the South Downs at Crown Tegleaze at 253 m.  The route undulates across the scarp slope the Downs, soon entering dark and sometimes muddy woodland before dropping down to the A286 on Cocking Hill, from where it is a mile into Cocking village itself.

Day 8:  Cocking  Depart after  breakfast you will be driven  over to Petersfield Railway Station for your departure on mainline rail services from the downs.

Extension

The original South Downs Way ran as far as Buriton (after  Cocking) until the extension to Winchester was added in the late 1980s. Purists may decide that the additional rolling landscape to Winchester, does not constitute ‘The Downs’ proper, but those with more time might like to complete the 100 miles to Winchester. 

Day 8:  Cocking – East Meon (18 miles/ 29 km) A convoluted section often on woodland trails. Interesting features, including the Devil’s Jumps tumuli; a group of large ancient burial hillocks. There is also Beacon Hill, an Iron Age Hill fort that you can pass over on the trail, which still has vestiges of the old ramparts and views towards Chichester Harbour. Next you will be winding around above the attractive villages of Harting with its impressive looking coppered church spire and then Buriton.  You can decide whether to walk down to village. This is an attractive Springline Village with a series of ponds. The walk continues above  Buriton,  climbing and then descending through the Queen Elizabeth Country Park. (There is a café). You then climb steeply up Butser Hill with Bronze Age field patterns etched upon it. The route then undulates over The Downs into some vast arable and wooded countryside, before dropping off route towards our accommodation near East Meon.

Day 9: East Meon to Winchester (16 miles/ 26km) Once back on the route we have a steep climb up to “Old Winchester Hill,” a National Nature Reserve and Iron Age Fortress from where the isle of Wight can be seen on a clear day. Descend beside a beautiful clear chalk stream in which you may see Brown Trout gliding about. At around lunchtime, the necklace of Meon Valley villages: Exton, Corhampton and Meonstoke (all within a mile of each other) are beautiful places to river watch and quaff beer as the Meon River flows idly by. The final half day is spent rolling over fields until at last Winchester comes into view!

Day 10: Depart from Winchester. A gemof a town, the ancient capital of England and the Kingdom of Wessex before that. The cathedral has the longest nave in Britain and there is a beautiful walk (flat at last!) down through the water meadows to St. Cross. Where  a “Dole” of bread  and Ale can still be obtained from the monastic buildings there. You should have plenty of time to look round before you have to take one of the many trains out of town, or  if you are really enjoying Winchester why not have an extra night?

Please note:

Please do not try to book this tour  around these periods: The Goodwood Festival 11-13 July, or The Goodwood Motor Circuit Revival, 19 - 21 September (2008 dates to be confirmed). The reason is that it is very unlikely that you will be able to get accommodation in some sectors of the walk at this time.