Walk - Mount Caburn Circular

The latest of the ESCC’s excellent series of free guided walks is led by Terry Owen, one of two people responsible for the recent opening of the Sussex Ouse Valley Way long distance footpath from the river’s source in West Sussex to Newhaven. The walk is a circular one from the town centre to Mount Caburn and back. Very much a walk you could do yourself (up Chapel Hill and past the Golf Course) but one, you feel, which would be much more enlightening with Terry tipping you the wink about some of the more interesting features.

For example? “On the way up to Caburn there’s a bit of land locally known as Bible Bottom,” he says. “We wondered why this should be. ‘Bottom’ of course, is a common term for a bit of hillside. But Bible? We realised that there was an old earthworks, which you can make out if you look carefully. It’s shaped like an open book”. And? “Then there are the rectangular bits of stone set in the ground at the top. There’s an ‘R’ on one side and a ‘G’ on the other. These used to signify the borders of the old parishes of Ringmer and Glynde.” He’ll tell you about Mount Caburn itself, and the old lime route from Glynde to Newhaven. “Dogs should be on a lead because there are sheep around,” he says, before going into more detail. “If we’re lucky we’ll see some Herdwick sheep, a hardy breed from the Lake District, which are unusual in these parts…” DL