This is one of my favourite local walks. If it was a real ale it would be called
something like ‘Old Dependable’, I’ve walked it dozens of times, it’s familiar
and never disappoints. It starts and
finishes in Arundel, takes you through wooded parkland, crosses the meandering
River Arun (twice), traverses classic high chalk downland, and swoops back to
Arundel along a lovely dry valley. It’s
just a shade under 19kms long, can be completed in under five hours and is just
tough enough to justify a couple of pints or so of genuine real ale in Arundel
before returning to Brighton (or wherever).
To be honest it does challenge the number No 2 ‘Walks from
Brighton Rule’ (you have to be able to get to and from the walk from Brighton
by public transport) as it takes nearly an hour to get there on either bus or
train (you can get there nearly as quickly from London). It’s not that far as crow flies but if you go
by train you have to change at Ford and the bus option, the ‘Coastliner 700’ is
even less direct. When I had a car the
rule could easily be ignored but no longer.
Last year (2014) I did the walk twice, once with Roger, who
came down from London, and once with Christine and was lucky with the weather
both times. With Roger, at the end of
July it was high summer and the barley in the huge fields on top of the Downs
was being harvested. With Christine it
was a couple of months later and the pheasants on the Duke of Norfolk’s Estates
(he owns most of West Sussex) were looking distinctly nervous as their
Armageddon approached.
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| Arundel Castle (1) |
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| Swanbourne Lake (2) |
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| Hiorne Tower peeping over the a ridge (3) |
My route saves the actual Arundel visit to the end and heads north along Mill Road, beneath the west wall of the castle, to the Swanbourne
Lake. Ignoring the temptation of the famous
Black Rabbit Pub in Offham (and the joys of the nearby Arundel Wetland Centre)
it follows a path past Swanbourne Lodge (a classic Sussex split flintstone
building) around the west side of the lake and up a dry valley into the 1,000
acre Arundel Park. High above the lake
is Hiorne Tower, an 18th Century folly and home to one of three famous local
ghosts (an unfortunate young woman who leap from the tower after being rejected
by her lover after telling him she was pregnant).
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| Arundel Park (4) |
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| Looking east from Arundel Park (5) |
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| The 19th century medieval barn at South Park (6) |
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| Aberdeen Angus (7) |
After crossing the Park and enjoying great views back to the
sea the route descends a steep chalky hillside, leaves the Park through a
secluded gate in a flint wall and follows a path through beech trees along the
banks of the River Arun. After climbing
a small hill it drops down to South Stoke (featuring an interesting 19th
Century interpretation of a medieval barn) and the first crossing of the River
Arun. After the dry chalky landscape of
the Arundel the route is now crossing water meadows which, if sunny, will be full
of sulking black Aberdeen Angus cattle complaining about the heat.
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| Leaving North Stoke (8) |
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| In the jungle (9) |
At North Stoke the route turns east along a quiet country
road following a little ridge and over a tunnel through which passes the London
Arundel railway line. At this point I
normally turn right and head down into a water meadow and follow a path running
underneath a cliff formed by an old meander in the river. It’s a lovely secluded spot surrounded by
trees and full of wildlife. Every time I've walked through it I’ve seen a raptor - buzzards, kestrels and even a
peregrine falcon. In July however it was hopelessly overgrown and unless you’re
into bush wacking, perhaps best avoided.
Instead stay on the road, now a farm track, and continue east over Camp
Hill, past an abandoned farm building and through a little copse to rejoin my
original route.
From the copse the route continues east along a farm track
across huge wide open fields and as evidenced by the number of bird feeders and
strategically placed strips of maze – killing fields if you happen to be a
partridge or a pheasant. In fairness to
the Duke of Norfolk and I guess what must be an army of gamekeepers, the number
of birdwatchers I’ve seen around here indicates it’s not just the pheasants and
partridges who manage to find a home on the downs.
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| Wepham Common (10) |
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| A hidden valley (11) |
After the ‘uplands’ and huge horizons the route turns south,
descends across Wepham Common Down and drops into a another intimate space, a
long dry bending valley with the Wepham Wood providing a dense eastern
boundary. The route sticks to the bottom
of this valley, initially shadowing a race horse training track, for nearly
three kilometres before emerging onto a road near Warningcamp. Here it turns left and then right down to the
railway line (not far from a youth hostel), crosses it and follows the bending
River Arun back to the town.
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| Anticipating a pint |
Arundel Castle, which dominates the town, is a 19th Century
reconstruction of an earlier medieval castle.
It’s the ‘seat’ of the Duke of Norfolk whose family has been in
residence for 400 years. If that’s just
a touch depressing, drop into the Swan Pub in the High Street, sink a couple of
its excellent pints and plot the revolution, you definitely won’t be the first.
If you want to download this route follow the link
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