Sussex Rambles: A disappearing walk along the cliffs at Fairlight

14th December

Six of us did this walk which started from Cliff End just outside of Fairlight. There is a tiny public car park there [///rice.collision.warthog] which is free but I suspect it will be very busy in the summer. Ordnance Survey says it's a 7.5 mile walk but all of us were showing a step count of about 8.5 miles at the end. I might have made a mistake during the walk but it certainly wasn't a miles worth!

The walk starts by heading inland and wanders through Pett and Guestling Green before turning and making its way back to the sea and along the cliff path through Fairlight Cove.

There are two interesting things about this tiny village perched on the cliffs - one is that the cliffs are being eroded at quite a fast rate and houses have fallen into the sea. The other is that the beach is known for its fossils and there are dinosaur footprints imprinted into the sandstone. Visiting the beach is on my list of things to do but as our visit was in December it won't be of any surprise to know it was raining which made finding any fossils or dinosaur feet unappealing!

See here for more information about Fairlight and fossils.

Sea defenses were built along the coast in the 1990s to try to save other properties from falling into the sea but so far as I can tell these have had mixed results.

The start of the cliff walk

There used to be a house here!

You can see how close some houses are to the edge and the cliff defenses at the foot of the cliffs

Bess looking towards Cliff End and Pett Level

The name Fairlight comes from the Saxon meaning 'fern clearing'. It's mentioned in the Domesday book as Ferlega and by 1712 as Fairly which is how the name is still pronounced locally.

The village of Pett was originally 'Pytte' and likely to have been named after the pit or hollow in the ground towards Pett Level.

Not being so familiar with this part of Sussex I had always thought the village of Guesting was one village but as it turns out it is several villages/hamlets - we walked through Guestling Green but there is also Guestling Thorn a few miles further north.

We walked past Peter James Lane which as a fan of his books I wondered if it had been named after the author. So far as I can tell from the internet, it isn't. The author doesn't think so and I have found a page written recently but referring to it as Peter James Lane in the 1940s. I haven't found out why it is named as it is but until told otherwise I am going to assume it is named for a long dead resident also called Peter James.

When we started the walk we could see what looked like a castle tower in the distance but couldn't see anything to say what it was on the map. We could see glimpses of it every now and again but couldn't figure out what it was until our walk took us right past the building.

As you can see from the photo it was raining when we went past Fairlight Hall so it's not a great image of what does appear to be a very striking building. My daughter recognised it when we were up close as she has been there to Riding for the Disabled which is based there. The house is private but the grounds are open to the public on occasion and they run charitable events there. Have a look at their website for much better images.

Here is the GPX for this walk - as always it is up to you to keep safe on these walks, to follow the Countryside Code - no complaints please if you get lost or don't enjoy the walk!

I thoroughly enjoyed the walk which had a mix of countryside and seaside as well as some drama with the disappearing cliffs. There was not too much road walking and where the walk did go along a busy main road there are good paths to keep you safe. This walk also has the benefit of a public toilet as you go into Fairlight - always handy!

Finally some more photos...