South Downs – David Kotz

Cissbury Ring hike

Climbing over 2,300-year-old earthworks with grand views of the sea.

The weather was beautifully clear for my 25th consecutive weekend of hiking, so I decided to head once again for the south coast and do a sort-of loop hike that would take me from a tiny coastal village, up to a hilltop capped by a Bronze-age earthworks that once served as a Saxon fortress; through the pastoral village of Clapham; to lunch in a 13th-century building housing a 17th-century pub, and over the highpoint at Cissbury Ring, a massive earthwork created in 300 BC and used (on and off) as a military asset for more than two thousand years. Read on!

Outer and inner earthworks of Cissbury Ring, atop a hill outside Findon.

Seven Sisters hike

A bonus hike on a glorious day!

There are some days when the weather is so beautiful – and the calendar is so empty – that one simply must get up and go outside. Today was one of those days, with a forecast for full sun and nary a cloud. Today was the day to hop a train southeast and follow a classic track along the coast of the English Channel, south of London. I was well rewarded, indeed!