Duncton Down - Barlavington Down - Burton Down

Sylvia Saunders

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A beautiful circular walk in the South Downs, as expected quite hilly, with soft ups and downs and a different stunning view with every turn. It starts from the Duncton Hill viewpoint car park - even there you are met with a fantastic view! Then after a gentle climb through woodland the route bursts out on to the open downs with spectacular, far-reaching views. There is a lot of variety along well-defined tracks; dipping into woodland where there is a good chance you may see some deer. Then back out on to the downs again, with a wealth of chalk downland flowers and butterflies in the summer months. Do this walk on a clear day to appreciate the far-reaching scenery. As this walk is always very good underfoot, it's also a good one for the winter months. There are no stiles and my dog had no problems with the gates. He really enjoyed it too!

This walk has now been revised to avoid the road at the end.

See Sylvia's comment about avoiding the busy road at the start of this walk.

England - South England - West Sussex - South Downs

Features

Birds, Butterflies, Flowers, Good for Kids, Great Views, Hills or Fells, Wildlife, Woodland

11/4/2009 - Addie Bambridge

This was indeed a fabulous walk, although steeper than we expected in places! We did it on 26/9/09 and the woods were beautiful. Please note that at waymark 5 the fingerpost is on the right, not the left. And at waymark 19 we didn't go far enough once we saw the road so don't be tempted to turn off too soon - there a couple of little paths on top of banks that could lead you onto the road instead of back to the car park. We have to add that Sylvia's walks are always the best!

2/18/2007 - Robert Comlay

I first did this walk in mid December in freezing fog with magical hoar frost. Even without the views it was lovely. Just repeated this in mid Feb in sunshine and enjoyed it just as much for totally different reasons. Can't wait for the spring to kick in since this is yet another wonderful walk for all seasons from Sylvia. The walk symbol suggests sensible footwear and to be perfectly honest, occasionally wet chalk is far less of a problem than the wet mud which bogs down other walks at this time of the year, so don't let Martin's comments discourage you from doing this one.

A few pictures from December and February can be found here: www.flickr.com

1/7/2007 - Martin O'Keeffe

I did this walk at the end of last Sept. Great variety of scenery (some stunning views!) through woods, open fields,etc. I cannot improve or add to the earlier comments only to add a word of warning. A blustery day with mixed showers & sunshine. Some of the 'path' is on exposed chalk which can get VERY slippery as I found out to my cost - one minute I was carefully negotiating a slight downward slope and the next I knew I woke up (a few minutes later?) flat on my back! I will return to walking on chalk in the spring but never again in the wet!

12/12/2006 - Sylvia Saunders

Whenever I write up a walk I always make sure that it follows Public Right of Ways. However, when we do this walk ourselves then we don’t walk down the busy road at the beginning of the walk to the official footpath. Instead we cross straight over the road from the car park to the barrier gate opposite and follow the path uphill and to the left. There are no signs to say that this is private, but nor are there any signs to say that this is a permissive path, so please be prepared to turn back if you decide to use this route. The path soon joins up with the official route at the T junction mentioned in my waymark 4. But instead of turning left here go straight on as indicated by the footpath sign. We did this walk on a glorious day in December. The views were outstanding; we had several different sightings of deer and a very good lunch at the Cricketers in Duncton!

10/20/2006 - Ray Churcher

Did this one today the 20th. Sat in the car at Duncton for nearly an hour because of torrential rain. I enjoy my walking but not THAT much!! Eventually it cleared. I agree with the previous comments entirely. This is another fine walk from the feet of Sylvia S. Surely she will run out of footpaths soon! Thanks again. Oh, a ps, just a note for other walkers. Please be very careful on the short bits at the front and end of the walk on the A285 - it can be a little hairy. Ray Churcher.

10/8/2006 - Stephen Harris

Well Sylvia. You were right, it is a 10/10. Fandabidozi views, great wildlife and well written instructions make for this truly rewarding ramble, just about the right length with a huge variety of different walking and excellent 'stop and turn round to look' views.! Well done. 10/10.!