If stellar views of sweeping landscapes, winding woodland paths and ancient history are your thing, then the Cuckmere Pilgrim Path in East Sussex is for you. This roughly 18 km circular walk starts and finishes in Alfriston and takes you along the foot of the South Downs to Selmeston before looping back via Arlington Reservoir and the Cuckmere River.
Walk summary
Stunning! This is a walk that keeps on giving. The landscape is very varied but always beautiful. It’s a pretty flat walk (unless you opt for the Windover Hill stretch) and there are so many points of interest along the way, meaning there is something for everyone with history, spirituality, birdlife, flora and fauna, pubs and outstanding views.
The churches come in fairly quick succession for the first half of the walk, but once you’ve left Arlington, there’s a long stretch where you can see the Long Man, ever present and slowly getting nearer, in the distance. Being able to look back at how far you’ve come and see Arlington Reservoir in the distance from the top of Windover Hill is very special. Look carefully, and you can see Mount Caburn.
Logistics
Park at The Willows car park at the north end of Alfriston. It’s £8.50 for the day. There are buses to Alfriston from Lewes, Eastbourne and Seaford but check timetables before travel. Alternatively, there is a train station at Berwick and you can pick up the trail from there.
The walk is well way-marked with the distinctive scallop shell of the pilgrim but it is worth having a map because there are just a couple of places where it’s not clear which way you should travel.
There is a Cuckmere Pilgrim Path pamphlet with information and a map available in most, if not all, of the churches on the route and there is also information online. We used a combination of the way markers, the pamphlet and the Ordnance Survey app.
The route starts at the church on the Tye in Alfriston (St Andrew but also known as the Cathedral of the South Downs – and you’ll realise why that is as you descend back into the village at the end of your walk). From there, walk up the High Street and bear left up West Street at Market Cross. As you start to leave the village behind you, you’ll pass the first way marker and know that you’re on your way.
The Pilgrim Solar Dial
At each of the seven churches you pass, lookout for the The Pilgrim Solar Dial which were installed in 2003. When the sun is out, “place a small stick or twig into the hole at the centre of the cross. Think of how the shadow cast defines this particular place on earth and specific moment in time.”
The dials are “based on scratch dials which are a distinctive feature of some of the churches along the Cuckmere Pilgrim Path.”. Designed by Thomas Sargeant, the project was sponsored by Cate Olson and Nash Robbins, ‘Much Ado Books’, Alfriston.
For more information about the dials, visit:
The churches
The churches you visit are:
- Alfriston (built in the 1360s and famous for its Easter Sepulchre and 14th century sundial).
- Berwick (famous for its incredible internal paintings by the Bloomsbury Set artists).
- Alciston (close to the site of a Medieval monastery and possibly dating back to the Saxon period).
- Selmeston (recorded in the Domesday Book and possibly dating back to the 9th century with a rather gorgeous modern stained glass window).
- Arlington (look out for the Roman bricks used in the window frame and the 13th century pottery jar).
- Wilmington (Wilmington Piory next door was founded by William the Conqueror’s step father and mother so imagine them chatting with William in the churchyard in the shade of the ancient yew tree that may date back to Roman times).
- Lullington (the smallest church in Sussex at just 16 feet square).
Top tip: As you walk in to Berwick Church there are a series of musical tracks you can listen to. Just choose from the panel of switches.
Other points of interest and highlights
There are lots of points of interest along the way, and the Cuckmere Pilgrim Path pamphlet lists many of these. They range from the Long Man of Wilmington and Medieval ruins to neolithic burial mounds, WWII bunkers and the site of Roman settlements.
Other highlights include:
- The birdsong and birdlife. Skylarks rise and fall from the undergrowth and birds of prey soar above. Look out for woodpeckers on some of the wooded paths.
- Arlington Reservoir. Catching a refreshing breeze and watching the sunlight dance on the water is very welcome on a hot day.
- The landscape and flora and fauna which in summer includes orchids, poppies and much more.
- The Long Man and Windover Hill. This part is optional and you can chose to go from Wilmington straight onto Lullington. The climb up Windover Hill is steep and adds a couple of kilometres to the walk. But the views are some of the best in this part of Sussex and well worth the effort.
- A chance to explore Alfriston. Grab coffee and cake at one of the coffee shops, like The Singing Kettle and browse in Much Ado bookshop.
The people
This is not a busy walk and you quickly leave other walkers behind as you head out of Alfriston. But it wouldn’t be a pilgrim trail if you didn’t pass other travellers. We chatted to two cyclists heading to Alfriston for breakfast, a young lad tasked with restoring one of the churches, an old Navy captain tending one of the church yards, and a group of teenagers doing their Duke of Edinburgh.
There is a solidarity in being out on the trails, and with each person we met, we stopped briefly, chewed the cud and wished each other godspeed. We learnt something new or of interest from all our fellow travellers and I hope we gave them something of value too. This is what it means to be a pilgrim to me.
Places to eat
There are pubs close to all but one (Lullington) of the churches you visit. Top tip: pack a picnic and eat on a bench in the various churchyards. We stopped at Selmeston, Arlington and Wilmington.
Compared to the Octagon Way
The Octagon Way is a similar walk in the west of West Sussex. It is 29 km and takes in eight historic churches and villages, culminating at Stansted Park. Whilst there are many similarities, the walks are, of course, very different. The Octagon Way is all about the nooks, crannies and details of the soft belly of the Western Weald, while the Cuckmere Pilgrim Path is very much about open spaces and heady, chalky views.
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