Cissbury and Chanctonbury Rings

Dave Millam

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This walk, which is particularly pleasant on a bright winter's day, encompasses Cissbury Ring, an Iron Age fort built around 500BC, comprising a single bank and ditch which is about 1 kilometre around and enclosing sixty acres.

The Cissbury landscape has been designated as being of Outstanding Natural Beauty, of Special Scientific Interest and an Environmentally Sensitive Area.

Further on, the walk flanks Chanctonbury Ring which was originally the site of a Roman temple. The word 'ring' refers to the circular earthwork, which dates back to Iron Age times. Prior to 1760, neither tree nor bush grew on Chanctonbury hillside; the circular clump of beech trees (ravaged by the October 1987 storms) was planted by Sir Charles Goring of Wiston House in 1760. Spectacular views of the South Downs abound throughout this walk.

England - South England - West Sussex - South Downs

Features

Birds, Flowers, Great Views, Hills or Fells, National Trust, Pub, Wildlife

9/3/2024 - Anthony Morton

Eventually a very good walk with outstanding views and mostly clear and easy paths. Over the years the 'small copse' at the start has become a wall of trees, and the field to it has numerous dog walkers paths. There are numerous paths through the trees to several gates. You need to keep to the left in the field. When you reach the ring itself via steps similar to the ones you later descend. Once you reach 5 there are no further difficulties.

12/9/2012 - julie smith

This is a wonderful walk with the most spectacular views, we did this last week in the winter and found it easy to walk, great for dogs too.

5/13/2012 - Patricia Daw

We lived in Steyning for 18 months about 17 years ago but never got round to climbing Cissbury Ring so on this gloriously sunny day we determined to climb both. Fantastic views are to be had from both rings and the climbs are not too bad at all. However the bit in between the two rings isn't that fantastically interesting and I'd recommend avoiding the walk after heavy rain. We're glad we've 'done' them. The walk directions were spot on.

7/25/2008 - Geoffrey Ellard

My wife and I walked this walk on the 24th July 2008, a hot day at 26 degrees celcius, we enlarged the walk by including the full perimeter of Cissbury Ring where we stopped for lunch, and enjoyed the clear views for miles, blue skies and warm southerly breeze. We had downloaded the walk from Walking World into Memory Map, and then loaded our GPS60CSx and Topo mapping with the way points and route overlay. We had such a great day. Many thanks to Dave Millam, Walking World, also Pete Davies and Ian Payne from GPS training, who taught me how to use GPS and digital mapping. Awesome day!

1/14/2007 - Stephen Harris

Walked this 14/01/2007. I have to say a superb walk (once recovered from the first haul up the hill) and views all around. Great directions, didn't get lost once and good underfoot conditions made this a truly rewarding walk, well worth doing but make sure the weather is nice or you the far reaching views wont be there in poor weather. Excellent, a true 10 out of 10. Well done!

12/11/2006 - justin smith

My wife and I did this walk this weekend. Used memory map for the first time and all worked out well. Nice walk for a Sunday morning although wrap up warm as the top of Chanctonbury is biting with the wind. Thanks Dave.

4/1/2005 - Robert Price

We completed walk 669, Cissbury and Chanctonbury Rings, last Saturday. It was our first WalkingWorld route and we were very impressed by the clarity of the description and the ease of navigation. One slight issue - my GPS made the distance 7.73 miles rather than the 7.14 published.