Stanmer Park and South Downs circular

Click here to view map

This walk will take you along unmarked public paths, so be sure to follow the route description carefully

In the past few months, Brighton and Hove City Council has established a number of new public paths and open access areas in Stanmer Park and the countryside to the north of the park area.

More are promised, including two new paths up to Ditchling Beacon but, at the time of writing, these were not yet available.

On this walk linking Stanmer Village and Ditchling Beacon, we can, however, sample a couple of these new routes which, linked with more established rights of way, add up to a downland circuit of about six miles.

Some extra care is needed in following the route description because the new paths, between points 2 and 3 and beyond point 6, are not yet marked on the Explorer map.

It is a fairly hilly walk but all the paths and tracks used are clear and well maintained, and you will have few problems apart from the possibility of occasional mud underfoot.

1. From the entrance to the Stanmer Church and village car park, turn right, leaving the church and a small building housing a well-head and a donkey wheel on your left.

Almost immediately, turn right along a signed No Through Road. Walk past the Stanmer Tea Rooms on your right. Just past a row of cottages on your right, turn right along a short tarmac access which leads to a new bridle gate.

2. From the gate, the first of our new paths climbs beside a row of trees, passes through a gap in a fence and ascends steeply up across rough pasture where there is a faint trodden path. Follow this path as it veers left along the side of the hill before bending right and climbing to reach a gate into woodland.

Go forward along a clear path for 60 yards before turning left along a wider track which you can follow north through Milbank Wood for a little over half a mile.

3. At a meeting of four wide tracks, a few yards short of an electricity pylon, turn right, dropping downhill through woodland to a gate and then along a left field edge with the wood on your left, walking along the floor of a quiet downland valley.

At the corner of the wood, go through a bridle gate and ahead with a fence on your left and a grassy slope rising up on your right.

The path eventually diverges from the fence to climb obliquely up out of the valley to reach a bridle gate. Through this gate, bear left along a left field edge, still on a clear path which soon drops down between banks.

After leaving the shelter of the trees, the path curves left across a dip to a gate and then climbs steadily across open downland for about half a mile to join the South Downs Way.

Turn left to follow the South Downs Way to reach the Ditchling Beacon road, with a spectacular view northwards across the Weald.

4. Cross the road, walk through the car park and continue westwards along the South Downs Way, soon passing about 400 yards to the right of the trig point on the summit of Ditchling Beacon.

After another 150 yards or so, at a waypost, turn left through a bridle gate, signed on the post to Heathy Brow. Follow this clear path southwards, soon across high, open downland.

After about half a mile, the path begins to drop down into a valley, now between fences.

Where the path opens out once again into a field corner, bear left to follow a left-hand fence as it contours round two sides of a large, sloping field.

5. In the field corner go left through a gate and follow a short field headland path out to the Ditchling Beacon road. Cross the road and follow a path which starts between low concrete posts and winds through a belt of woodland to join a wider path, where you should turn left.

At a waypost, go ahead with the bridleway, ignoring a crossing path. At another waypost, once again go ahead, this time disregarding a right fork.

6. At the next junction, turn sharply back to the right along a rutted track, dropping gently downhill.

This is the start of the second of the new paths used on this walk. Go straight over another crossing path, still losing height.

Just beyond a second crossing path, which you should also disregard, go through a new bridle gate, left through a gap in a fence and right beside this fence to a second, recently-installed bridle gate.

From this gate, a cleared woodland path continues gently downhill, then crosses a small gap in the woods where two more gates have been provided. Carry on down through woodland.

At the edge of the wood, go through yet another gate and turn left along a broad headland path with a fence on your left.

After a little over a quarter of a mile, at a junction with a hard track, turn right to follow it back into Stanmer village and the start.