Lewes circular walk via Mount Caburn

Lewes circular via Mount Caburn

Distance: 15.3 miles.
Time without long breaks: Apx 8 hours.

Terrain: Includes a few steep climbs.
How to get there and back: Catch a train to Lewes from London Victoria. The journey takes just over an hour.

Pubs breaks: The only pub en-route is the Juggs Inn at Kingston. On your return to Lewes, you pass The Swan and there are plenty of other great ones, including the Lewes Inn, the Gardeners Arms and the Snowdrop. There is also The Patch craft ale bar and two micro-brewery tap rooms (check for opening times) – Beak and Abyss.
More information: This is one of two circular walks on this site that start and end in Lewes (see walk 23).

Click on the image below to access the full map on Plotarooute.com

This walk begins and ends in the historic town of Lewes and includes some beautiful views from the top of the South Downs. You ascend to the iron age hill fort of Mount Caburn and pass through the villages of Glynde, Southease and Kingston. The last section follows part of Juggs Road, an old trading route connecting Lewes and Brighton. The artist Eric Ravilious loved this area and often visited Furlongs – the subject of some of his paintings – which you pass on the walk (see below).

Turn right on exiting the station, go over the bridge and turn right again into Lansdown Place. Proceed along Friars Walk, past All Saints Church and the Quaker Meeting House. At the crossroads, turn right into Cliffe High Street, going over the bridge and past Harvey's Brewery. Cross over at the end, by Thomas Becket Church, and head up a steep lane called Chapel Hill. To the right is South Street, which runs parallel to the river and has a great pub, The Snowdrop. It's named after a fatal avalanche that occurred in 1836 when snow on the chalk hill fell on the houses below. Proceed up Chapel Hill until you reach the club house for Lewes golf course. Turn left here and follow the track onto the Downs.

Return along the track, going past the path you were previously walking along, and then turn right about 150m further on onto a chalk track. This goes past some trees then runs down along the side of a field before emerging at a farm and a road. Turn right and you shortly pass Glynde Place and St Mary's Church on your left-hand side. Continue into the village. You will soon pass Ranscombe Lane on the right, which has a small shop and post office (a little bit further along the lane there are some steps which lead to a footpath back to Mount Caburn). Carry straight along the main street, passing Glynde station and the site of a now sadly closed pub, the Trevor Arms.

Return to the main path and start the steep ascent up to the top of Beddingham Hill. You will see the radio masts ahead. The track curls around the summit until it meets the ridge and the South Downs Way. Turn right and head along the track, passing a triangulation point at Red Lion Pond. A little further along the path turns sharply left. The South Downs Way then bends back on itself near the bottom of the hill, but you can cut the corner off here by taking the path straight ahead down a steep incline towards the river valley below. Rejoin the South Downs Way, cross the A26 and skirt around the YHA hostel at Itford Farm to Southease station.

Down below you on your right is the village of Rodmell, once home to Virginia and Leonard Woolf (see walk 23). Carry on along the ridge of the Downs. There are some spectacular views, particularly if you look behind you. Further along you will see another village, Iford. The South Downs Way turns sharply right by a signpost and then continues in the same direction. Shortly after this there is a bridleway down to Swanborough Manor on the right (Drencher Road). Ignore this, but half a mile further on, when you reach a junction of paths by some gates, turn right along another bridleway (Breacher Road) and then take the footpath immediately to your left, which is the start of a very steep descent.

You will soon pass Kingston Windmill. There is an evocative feel to the landscape up here, particularly on a late summer's evening, and there are fine views from the old track towards Caburn and Firle Beacon. You emerge at a gate onto a lane. It passes some houses and a former children's home and leads to a bridge over the main Lewes to Brighton road. Continuing along the lane, you emerge at the end of Southover High Street in Lewes, and The Swan Inn, a Harvey's house and one of the few pubs in the town with a beer garden. Continue along Southover High Street, past Anne of Cleves' house. The remains of Lewes Priory can be accessed down Cockshutt Road on your right. Carry straight on along the road to reach the station.

The track skirts a ridge before bearing right to Oxteddle Bottom (you normally have to walk through cows here, but they are friendly enough). Keeping the hills on your right, carry on along the path until it meets a chalk track. Turn right here to reach the top of Mount Caburn, a National Nature Reserve with great views of the Ouse valley below. Caburn is the site of an Iron Age hill fort and over 140 burial pits have been discovered here. The landmark has attracted the interest of writers and artists over the years and is the subject of a painting by Eric Ravilious (see panel).

Head along Station Road, ignoring Mill Lane on the left, until you come to the busy A27. Cross straight over and continue up the lane opposite. After about half a mile, past Little Dene, you will see a turning on the right. If you are interested in Eric Ravilious, a little way along this track is a private house called Furlongs, a former shepherd's cottage which was home to the artist and designer Peggy Angus in the 1930s. Ravilious used to visit Angus here, and the area is the subject of some of his works, including Tea at Furlongs and Mount Caburn (see below). Other visitors to Furlongs included the printmaker, painter and designer John Piper.

Go over the train tracks and then cross the bridge over the River Ouse. You will soon come to Southease village. The village green, which lies in front of the pre-Norman church and its round tower, is a beautiful, tranquil spot to rest a while. To continue, carry on along the South Downs Way, which runs behind the church. The lane emerges at a road. Turn right up this road and then take the next left into Gorham's Lane. You will see a wooden gate with a signpost on the other side. Go through the gate to continue along the SDW. After about 100m, turn left along the track. Just over half a mile later, turn right and ascend Mill Hill.

The path takes you over two stiles, through some trees and down steps to emerge at a lane on the edge of the village of Kingston. Head along The Street, past St Pancras Church, and here at last is a pub – The Juggs Inn, which has a nice outdoor seating area which gets popular in summer. On leaving the pub, turn left into Ashcombe Lane and walk up until you reach a crossroads with a wooden signpost and Kingston Ridge on your left. This is Juggs Corner. Take a right here up the lane. You are now on Juggs Road, which used to be the trading route from Lewes to Brighton. It is named after the baskets of fish the women of Brighton used to carry to the market in the county town.

The Bloomsbury Group was not the only group of artists attracted to the South Downs. Eric Ravilious and friends were a more modest bunch with similarly complicated love lives. Eric is famous for his watercolour landscapes as well as woodcuts, murals and designs for Wedgwood. There has been a renewed interest in him and much of his work is held by the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne. His downland scenes show the lines and curves of the fields and hills, with always a human trace – whether huge chalkland figures (which he featured in drafts for a children’s book), paths on escarpments, or a hint of barbed wire. Eric spent much time in Furlongs, the home of Peggy Angus, an artist and teacher. Speaking of his first visit in 1934, he said: ‘It changed my whole outlook and way of painting. I think because the colour of the landscape was so lovely and the design so beautifully obvious.’ He also had another reason to frequent the house as he began an affair with Peggy’s friend, the artist Helen Binyon. Eric’s wife Tirzah Garwood, herself a talented print-maker and artist, knew about Helen and others, but their marriage survived.

Furlongs can be viewed from the road but is privately owned. You can recognise the house and its gardens from his paintings along with its view to Mount Caburn, the impressive iron age fort that features in this walk. Eric was an official war artist and lost his life on duty in a plane that went missing over the Icelandic coast in 1942. He was 39. He is an enigmatic figure; it’s very difficult to catch a clear picture of him – something that was attempted in the 2022 film Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War. He is perhaps best seen in the English landscape. For those familiar with the Downs, his paintings spring unbidden on certain stretches of path – a flash of humanity in the chalk downland. BH

Full-day country walks in SE England and beyond

Lewes circular via Mount Caburn

Click on the image below to access the full map on Plotarooute.com

​

Full-day country walks in
SE England and beyond