6 Great Walks for Social Distancing in East Sussex

Thank the Lord for a change in what we're allowed to do in the UK during this pandemic. I know that some people are not happy that lockdown has lightened and don't want to be heading out for walks, and that is OK, we are all different. It is your prerogative to choose what is right for your family. I'm happy for my family to go out together and enjoy the great outdoors and keep a 2-metre distance between us and other families, or if necessary to quickly pass each other on a path.

There seems to be agreement from the scientists that the risk of contracting the coronavirus in the great outdoors is far less than indoors, and it is certainly more fun to be to in the sun taking some exercise than it is to head into a supermarket.

We've decided to stay fairly local to home when we head out for a trip, as there doesn't seem any need to start travelling massive long distances when there are great places on our doorstep, and if everyone did this there would be far fewer worries about areas becoming inundated with visitors from afar.

Here are our recommendations for six walks you can take in East Sussex and enjoy the great outdoors, whilst also being sensible and applying the rules of social distancing.

1.   Seven Sisters Cliffs and Country Park (near Eastbourne - BN20 0AB)

This week I dropped my husband and children at Birling Gap (the National Trust car park is open and charging, but the toilets and cafe area closed) so they could take the 4-mile walk across the cliffs. The seven sisters are seven cliffs that elevate up and down, so this can be a bit of a challenging walk, but it is well worth it when you get to the Cuckmere valley and you can walk to either the beach or through the meandering river and up to the car park where I had parked to collect them.

A word of warning if you're new to this area, the cliffs are made of chalk and prone to crumble, so please stay away from the edge as they can be super dangerous and no photo is worth your life.

Thanks to my husband for this image

A Beautiful Lunch at the Vintage Inns Beachy Head Pub

Last week my husband and I had the pleasure of a weekday off together, so we decided to head to the Eastbourne area for a walk along the beautiful cliffs at Beachy Head and to enjoy lunch at the Beachy Head Vintage Inn pub. We’ve eaten there before so we were expecting it to be good and we certainly weren’t disappointed.

Check out the Vintage Inns App
I downloaded the app as I knew you could get some good deals via that. Straight away I saw there was a 33% off food voucher running for all of January, but noted this couldn’t be used on set menus. I booked a table via the app and this was easy and I received a confirmation quickly.

Arrival at the Beachy Head Vintage Inn
We know this area well, so it was easy for us to find the pub, and even for someone travelling there for the first time, if you follow the signs or your SatNav for Beachy Head you’ll arrive easily. Make sure you park in the pub car park behind it, so you don’t have to pay, as most local car parks up on the cliffs are local council pay and display ones.

The pub looked clean, well maintained and welcoming. When we went inside it became clear that it wasn’t the busiest day and we just grabbed a table where we fancied. There are good seating areas outside for warm weather use, at both the front and back of the building. The views from the back are breath-taking and stretch right across to the lighthouse, Birling Gap and Seven Sisters cliffs from inside the pub/ restaurant.

Visiting the Seven Sisters Country Park, East Sussex

We've lived in East Sussex for coming on six years now and visited the Seven Sisters cliffs so many times. It is a stunning area and wonderful to walk, but with the massive dips (or seven sisters) it can be a demanding hike and takes a bit of energy and kind weather. Recently we wanted to head out as a family to enjoy a good walk, but not a really demanding one, so we decided to trial the flatter walk from the visitor centre down to the Cuckmere Haven, where the River Cuckmere meets the English channel.

I'm so glad we discovered this area, it was a little further for us to drive than Beachy Head or Birling Gap where we normally go, but it was well worth it. The country park is maintained by East Sussex country council and there are two car parks, one on each side of the road. We found plenty of parking on a mild January day but I'd imagine it would be heaving busy in the summer. It costs £3 for up to 2 hours and £4 for the day. The machine takes coins, credit cards and you can use the Ringo app too.

I was really pleased to see that there are toilets (including an accessible one), a visitors centre (open for limited periods during the year) and a gorgeous cafe serving fabulous coffees, homemade cakes and a super selection of salads.

The easy access trail that we took is 4km down to the beach and back and it is great for pushchairs, wheelchairs, mobility scooters and all sorts of kids fun, like bikes, skates and scooters. My girls preferred to be running all over the place, up the hills, down to the riverside, looking in streams and jumping puddles. It is certainly a fun place to explore.

Cliff Walking this Summer - National Trust - East Sussex

One of the advantages of living on a small island country is the amount of amazing coastline we have to explore and it's not all the same, the diversity of our coast is amazing and makes for some wonderful trips across the UK.

Whilst it's nice to visit the beach, we often enjoy the contrast of walking along the cliffs and being up high. Luckily for us, we are only about 30/40 minutes away from the National Trust maintained coastline that is the Seven Sisters/ Birling Gap and Beachy Head. There is no entry charge to explore the area and parking is just £2 for a half-day or £4 for the full day so great value.

We have been here more times than I can count and we often take the mini-bus so we have a ton of people with us to enjoy the glorious views and fresh air. At the beginning of July, we took a party of 16 people and had a great time skimming stones on the beach, jumping the waves and then walking the cliffs of the Seven Sisters.

One thing I can't fail to say is that you MUST stay away from the edge. Please keep at least 10 metres back from the edge as chalk cliffs are prone to falling away and there has been so much erosion over the last few years. You really can't be too careful!

Let me share a few photos from our fun day -

You can see the National Trust cafe, shop and Visitor Centre in the bottom right corner and the metal steps that extend out from the cliffs and allow you to walk down to the pebbly beach. When the sea is out this is a wonderful place for rock-pooling.

You can get a great cream tea here with amazing views, it is worth the drive up for that alone!

Date Night, Walking the Cliffs and Beautiful Sunsets

Happy Thursday friends, how are you today?

I'm doing well but getting desperate for the end of term, there is so much going on and the kids are getting more and more tired. I really struggle to understand why primary school children still have homework at this time of year, mine just can't focus... but not long now!

It has been a fabulous last week in general and here is just a few of the highlights -

1.   A great date night with my hubby. We went to see the film Absolutely Fabulous and it gave us a good few belly laughs and we also enjoyed a fabulous authentic Italian meal. I'd highly recommend Rustico Italiano in Hastings, East Sussex if you are ever local. Such reasonable prices and the food was exceptional.

2.   Cliff walking with our Pastoral Group at Seven Sisters and the Birling Gap. This area of outstanding beauty managed by the National Trust is truly beautiful and really worth a day trip. We have been here dozens of times but I never tire of it. You can walk for miles or just lie there and take in the glory of God's creation. I'll be blogging separately about this soon.

Thanks to Erica for this great picture

National Trust - Birling Gap, East Sussex

What a nice Saturday we had last week. Some of the volunteers here had expressed an interest to go and visit Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters cliffs and we were happy to oblige and give them a lift. With our National Trust card in hand, we set off. I was super surprised to find though that there is no cost for visiting Birling Gap and walking the land that the National Trust owns and preserves.  You do need to pay for parking if you don't have your member parking badge but the prices were reasonable and you could claim the full cost back if you bought from the cafe or shop, which is what we did.

The tide was pretty high when we arrived but the kids still enjoyed going down from the clifftop onto the beach and throwing pebbles in and seeing what booty we could find. You can see the large steel stairwell that you descend in the first picture. I was so glad to find it was not some rickety cliff steps as I know there has been more cliff erosion here in the last year than there has been in the decade before it! We would like to go back when the tide is lower as lots of rock pools reveal themselves.

We decided to give the paddling and wave jumping a miss on that day as it was not the warmest but some others were more hardy than us and having a great time. After a while, on the beach, we headed back up the stairs and into the visitor centre to see what we could find. There was a lovely helpful assistant by the door who advised us of the many events going on over the summer months and talked to the girls about all the things they could find on the beach. Miss E really loved the natural chalk and Miss M was super proud of her cuttlefish find.

We all found the visitor centre interesting, it included history, facts, things to touch and explore and also a dress-up corner. Don't I look fetching as a fisherman?

We decided the best place for our picnic would be on the cliff top and my husband declared that he could spend every day up there just gazing over the beautiful views.

Next up a walk along some of the seven humps of the cliffs (seven sisters you see) and let me tell you they are far steeper than they first looked. The kids thought it was fabulous fun to run up and down the slopes and I was pleased there was a small wire fence to give them a visual boundary and keep them far away from the cliff edge. As it got later the sea started to go out and that makes the beach view even more dramatic.

I'd definitely recommend a trip to Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters, we will be going back again and this time I'll take my walking shoes and go a bit further afield, there are over 500 acres of open grass chalkland to explore after all.

Our day finished with ice-creams from the National Trust shop and the prices were as I'd expect, my tub was £1.70 for a very decent ice cream and the kids had various kiddie lollies. We also bought a boogie board and some fishing nets and there was a good variety of nice gifts and memorabilia.

The toilets were clean and easy to access and there was drinking water available on tap to refill your bottles. I'd imagine the only downside to this National Trust site might be tight parking in the very peak summer months but we will be back and I'd recommend a visit.

Check out all our other National Trust reviews over here.