Easter Monday April 13, 2009; 6 miles, ascent approx 150m (Map OS Explorer 123)
A lovely day for a walk across open downland, with skylarks overhead and lambs gamboling in the fields. The landscape makes for easy walking and we fairly skipped round this route on a sunny afternoon after a picnic lunch on top of the Downs.
This was a circular walk from the car park on top of the Downs above Bopeep farm and quarry. The car park is reached by turning N off the A27 near the village of Selmeston, which is a few miles NW of Alfriston in East Sussex.
Where the road stops on top of the Downs at the car park, we headed SW towards Heighton Hill (1.5 miles away) and then Gardener's Hill (a further 0.5 mile or so). Going down hill, we crossed Stump Bottom and took the sunken bridleway a further few hundred yards in the same direction.
At a bridleway turning SW, we stopped for a sweetie, etc break (not just any sweeties, these were M&S Percy Pigs - thanks to Caroline). The track SW follows the floor of Povery Bottom and is one of my favourites: a sunken, hedgerow-lined path that's probably been walked for hundreds of years.
Emerging back into the 21st century, we passed the pumping station at Norton Bottom to reach the hamlet of Norton. Here we turned ENE along a footpath that climbs gradually and then more noticeably along the fabulously named Devilsrest Bottom. When the path reaches the ridge (about 1.25 mles from Norton), we hopped over a stile onto a road track (bridelway).
Keeping on the ridge (and on this track), we turned more-or-less N for the 2 miles back to the car park, passing Norton Top and enjoying a lovely finish across open countryside (more baa-ing).
This walk was probably just enough to earn us the curry we had back in Lewes that evening.