At long last the South Downs Way at Eastbourne has a happy ending…… or happy beginning depending on the choice of direction you wish to travel the Trail.
The Trail has separate bridleway and footpath routes between Alfriston and Eastbourne. From Alfriston, the bridleway heads eastwards via Wilmington, Jevington and Eastbourne Downland and until now, came to a halt at Paradise Drive. The footpath, on the other hand, heads south through Litlington, the Seven Sisters Country Park and along the cliffs to finish on Eastbourne Seafront at Duke’s Drive. In the Trail’s history this has always been the case, owing to the unsuitability of the footpath route for both horse riders and cyclists, and the cliffs and their views too good an opportunity to be missed out where possible. This has always left the trail with a bit of a frayed end or staggered start at Eastbourne….. until now.
With the help and cooperation of Eastbourne Borough Council and East Sussex County Council’s Rights of Way department we have managed to improve the B1203 road crossing, that once posed a hazard with a nasty bend, so that bridleway users can cross and eventually join with the folk from the footpath for a photo finish. Our thanks also go to the South Downs Volunteer Ranger Service who did a sterling job in erecting new finger posts on the route to keep everyone on track.
To mark this sparkly new, united launch pad or landing stage we have erected a larger than life oak finger post with a fitting acorn on the top. As this new look route is so hot off the press, you won’t find it on the current Ordnance survey maps, but fear not, click here for the first glance.