The South Downs from Newhaven

Editor's note

Two nights for Brighton and the cliffs. Tour the Royal Pavilion, built in an Indo-Saracenic style for the Prince Regent in 1815–23, for its Music Room and the dragon chandelier in the Banqueting Room. Walk the Palace Pier and the beach below it, ride Volk's Electric Railway, the oldest electric railway still running in the world, and wander the Lanes or go up the i360. On the second day, look down from Beachy Head on the lighthouse in the sea, then follow the chalk switchback of the Seven Sisters towards Cuckmere Haven and walk down to the meanders of the river at Exceat.

Editor's note

One night at Arundel. The castle has been the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk for centuries, and was rebuilt so thoroughly in the 19th century that it looks like the idea of a castle; tour it and climb the Norman keep. Across the town, go into the French Gothic Catholic cathedral on the hill. Then drop to the valley floor and walk the boardwalks through the reedbed and open water of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve, or follow the bank of the Arun towards Amberley.

Editor's note

The final night of the loop, beside the Bluebell Railway, before the crossing home. The Lewes and East Grinstead line opened in 1882; after it closed, preservationists had trains running again over four and a half miles on 7 August 1960, the first preserved standard gauge steam passenger railway in the world to run a regular public timetable. Volunteers still run it. Ride behind steam from Sheffield Park to East Grinstead, past stations restored to different decades, and go round the locomotive sheds and carriage works at Sheffield Park.