South Downs Way

Description

(D/A) From The Star & Garter front door, turn right and walk past the village hall on the left, ignoring a footpath just afterward. Turn left at the church noticeboard and walk up to the church, passing to the left of the flint-and-brick Church Cottage.

(1) Pass to the right of the church and exit the churchyard in the far corner, into the car park. Turn right to the road. Turn left up a sunken farm track and follow it for 150 yards until you emerge into a field. Leave the track almost immediately to follow a sunken grassy way uphill (Round-head Rampion, the ‘Pride of Sussex’, grows here).

(2) In the top right-hand corner of the field, go through a hand-gate into the wood, passing a bench on the right. After 200 yards, just beyond a gateway with waymark disks, continue along the right-hand side of the field.
Look out for a wood-en fingerpost, where you bear right into the trees, close to the fence on your right.
Keeping right at each opportunity, follow the waymarked path downhill through the trees to a field gate.

(3) Walk down the right-hand side of the field and climb a stile into the farmyard, and pass behind an open-sided barn. Turn right past a fine flint-walled barn and out to the farm drive.
Turn left and bear right at a junction of tracks beyond the farm buildings. Follow the track up the valley for just under 1⁄2 mile to Postles Barn.

(4) For the shorter route, turn right here into the trees and see “Shorter route” (10) , below. Otherwise, continue along the track, passing a field on the right sometimes used for camping.
Beyond a copse to the right of the track, but before a second on the left, turn left off the track through a gateway by a ‘Restricted byway’ signpost.
Walk up the dry valley to the right of a medieval terraced field system, then climb slightly right, out of the valley bottom, to a gate into the woods.
Follow the byway for 3⁄4 mile, keeping straight on at a series of cross-roads, until you meet the South Downs Way.

(5) Turn right along the long-distance bridleway, signposted ‘Upwaltham’. Stay on the South Downs Way for 2⁄3 mile to a crossroads with another signposted byway, ignoring a couple of paths signposted off to the left along the way.

(6) Continue on the South Downs Way ahead, ignoring more paths on the left until you reach another crossing track at the top of a hill, with wide views to the north. Turn right off the South Downs Way here, signposted to ‘East Dean’.
Shortly, ignore a bridleway off to the left, continuing ahead with a field on your right. The track narrows as it continues through woodland to reach a gate into fields.
Continue ahead, with fields on either side. Beyond a clump of trees on the left, sheltering a shallow pit surrounded by large flints, the path proceeds to the corner of a wood, where it re-enters the trees.
At a signposted junction with a public foot-path, keep straight ahead on the public bridleway, which passes an overgrown, redundant gateway before joining a long, straight ride.

(7) After 1⁄4 mile, go straight on at a five-way junction, now following a graveled track. Cross another ride and keep along the main track whenever it is crossed or joined by other paths. Eventually, you pass a metal barrier beyond the Forestry Commission sign for Charlton Forest/Ripshook/New Road.

(8) The rough track (New Road) descends ahead for 3⁄4 mile, with occasional views over the valley to your right, until meeting the road on the edge of East Dean.

(9) Turn right back to the road junction at Droke Farm below the church, and bear left back to the Star & Garter. (D/A)

(10) Shorter route
From Postles Barn, climb steeply through the trees to meet a track at a T-junction. Turn right and follow the track (ignoring a vague track off to the right) to reach a junction with another signposted bridleway after 250 yards, near the corner of the wood.
Turn left. After 400 yards, with views down the valley, you meet New Road (a rough track) between a Forest Commission sign and a metal barrier. Turn right past the barrier and rejoin the main route at waypoint (8) .