Kent and Sussex: The White Cliffs to the South Downs

Editor's note

One night at Dover. Walk the White Cliffs from the Langdon Cliffs visitor centre, about 110m above the Channel, to South Foreland Lighthouse, the first lit by electricity, in 1858, where Marconi sent the first ship-to-shore radio message in 1899. Above the town, tour Henry II's castle and go down into the Secret Wartime Tunnels, from which the Dunkirk evacuation was directed in 1940. Dover Museum holds a Bronze Age boat some 3,500 years old.

Editor's note

One night at Canterbury. Thomas Becket was murdered in the cathedral on 29 December 1170. St Augustine's Abbey was founded after Augustine arrived in 597, and St Martin's is the oldest church in continuous use in the English-speaking world. Walk under the Westgate Towers of 1380 and take a punt on the Stour. Whitstable still lands its oysters and holds an oyster festival every summer: eat them on the beach or at the harbour market, walk the alleys between the high street and the sea, and cycle the Crab and Winkle Way along the old railway towards Canterbury.

Editor's note

Two nights by Rye, one of the two Antient Townes of the Cinque Ports. Walk up cobbled Mermaid Street past the Mermaid Inn, whose cellars date from 1156, climb the Ypres Tower for the view over Romney Marsh, and walk out to the sands at Camber. Ride the 15-inch gauge Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway from New Romney to Dungeness, one of the largest expanses of shingle in Europe, and walk past the fishing huts to the old lighthouse. Derek Jarman's garden at Prospect Cottage is seen from the road. At Tenterden, board the Kent and East Sussex Railway down the Rother valley to Bodiam.

Editor's note

One night at Battle, where William built his abbey with its high altar on the spot where Harold is said to have fallen on 14 October 1066. Stand there, then walk the battlefield from the English ridge down to the Norman line and go through the monks' gatehouse into the abbey ruins. In Hastings, the fishing fleet is winched up the shingle at the Stade, among tall black net shops built high and narrow because ground rent was charged by the square foot. Ride the East Hill and West Hill cliff railways, walk the castle ruins on the West Hill and go into St Clement's Caves beneath it.

Editor's note

One night by the Seven Sisters. Stand on Beachy Head, at 162m the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, above the lighthouse in the sea below. Walk west past Belle Tout, the clifftop lighthouse of 1831, decommissioned in 1902 because mist hid its light, down to Birling Gap and along the switchback of the Seven Sisters to the Cuckmere meanders at Exceat. In Brighton, tour John Nash's Royal Pavilion, built for the Prince Regent in 1815–23, with its dragon chandelier in the Banqueting Room. Walk the Palace Pier of 1899 and ride Volk's Electric Railway, the oldest electric railway still running in the world.

Editor's note

One night at Arundel. The castle, seat of the Dukes of Norfolk for centuries, was rebuilt and restored so thoroughly in the 19th century that it looks like the idea of a castle. Tour it and climb the Norman keep, then go into the French Gothic Catholic cathedral that faces it across the town. Below them, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve fills the valley floor with reedbed and open water: walk its boardwalks, then follow the bank of the Arun towards Amberley.