Читать книгу Walks in the South Downs National Park онлайн

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The walk across the Seven Sisters is a much-loved outing (Walk 5)

Some of England’s loveliest villages are found in the South Downs; this thatched cottage is in Amberley (Walk 24)

This book is a guide to some of the most rewarding walks to be had in the South Downs National Park, and is the result of many years spent exploring these lovely hills, valleys and villages. Literally hundreds of miles have been walked, in all seasons and in all weathers, and we’ve enjoyed every one of them. The difficulty was in choosing just 40 routes to represent the essential Downs.

The Essential Downs

The Weald is good, the Downs are best – I’ll give you the run of ’em, East to West.

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936)

These smooth green hills stretch for about 90 miles from Beachy Head near Eastbourne to St Catherine’s Hill, overlooking the River Itchen, at Winchester: an ample, generous land characterised by skylarks, cowslips, poppies and sheep. Angled slightly inland away from the coast, the narrow band rising above Eastbourne broadens into sometimes heavily wooded, parallel ridges further west, while nestling in their folds lie ancient churches and villages of flint, half-timbered brickwork and thatch, some owing their history to estates like Firle, Goodwood and Parham which today preserve large areas of unspoilt grassland.