The Sussex Diamond Way is a 60-mile route through the middle of the county, devised in 1995 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Ramblers’ Association. John Harmer starts in the east at Heathfield. This will be followed with our other walks contributors doing three further sections, finishing at Midhurst in the west.

1. From the car park, turn left along Tower Street to road junction (A265), cross and go down Marklye Lane opposite for ½ mile. Immediately past a black weather-boarded house, turn left on tarmac drive by a footpath plinth and Marklye House sign.

Cross a bridge over the disused Heathfield to Tunbridge Wells railway. Approaching a house, turn left at a fingerpost, then right downhill between fences, bearing right through a field-gate by a fingerpost. Turn left downhill to cross a stile and footbridge into woodland.

Follow the path, bearing right then crossing a track. Continue in a north-westerly direction to cross a footbridge, then an electrified wire using the insulated hand-grip. Continue uphill and through a gap between fields, heading towards Herring’s Farm, seen ahead.

2. At a four-ways fingerpost, go straight ahead to the right of the house, through a hand-gate; noting bee hives to the right. Continue downhill and through a field-gate with a waymark. Turn right on a well-trodden path and, at a waymark post, turn left down a sunken way; noting a walnut orchard on the left. Go over a footbridge and bear right.

3. Leaving the wood, cross a stile and continue left of a pylon, veering right to cross another stile over the brow of the hill. Continue crossing a stile and, at a fingerpost, turn right on a track.

In a few paces, go through a field-gate by a fingerpost. Bear right by a pond, through a kissing-gate and small field to go over a waymarked low wooden barrier.

Follow the path, through a field-gate, between farm buildings. At a fingerpost, turn left on a tarmac drive by Allen’s Farmhouse, following a lower track to a lane, turn right. At a junction bear left along Leeds Lane for ½ a mile. Just past Bella Vista, right, turn right on a byway. Don’t go through a gate but bear left to reach main road (A267) at Five Ashes leaving Sussex Diamond Way.

4. Cross with care, turning left on the footway past the school and Five Ashes Inn. Cross at traffic lights and double-back along Leeds Lane. Bear right along Meres Lane again for ½ a mile and, at a sign on the left, follow the tarmac track to Northover Farm.

Immediately past the farm’s gated entrance, go through a waymarked field-gate. Just before another field-gate, veer left through a kissing-gate on to a grass path. Continue between fences, ignoring a footpath on the left, bearing right downhill then left back to point 3. Now, retrace the route to Herring’s Farm.

5. At the four-ways fingerpost, turn right on an unsurfaced track by a pond. Follow this for about a mile, passing a TV mast on the right. Going up an incline, turn left by a footpath plinth and follow this path to the main road junction (A267/265).

6. Turn left on the footway for nearly ¾ of a mile into Heathfield. Just past the Co-op entrance, cross at traffic lights and continue. In a few paces, turn right down a twitten.

At the bottom, look back to the right to see the end of a railway tunnel under the High Street; part of the old railway crossed earlier. Opposite is the old station building.

Turn left up the footway, cross at the traffic island towards Sainsburys then turn right down the footway for 120 yards. Turn left into Gibraltar Rise, right up Highcroft Crescent to the far end and right at the T-junction. Just past Cuckmere Rise, left, go through a gap in the hedge into the Rec Ground, back to the car park.