Chanctonbury Ring, England

I lay here on my bed watching fluffy clouds move against the clear blue sky following the direction of the wind. This side of my room is a glass wall looking over the South Downs in the distance. So when I lie here in my bed, I get the illusion of lying under the open blue sky and over the horizon, in the distance, the bushy top of Chanctonbury ring plays peek-a-boo. 

It was a warm sunny day. We went to Carat’s café (https://www.caratscafebar.com/) for a full cooked English breakfast in the beach, went paddling in the sea in Shoreham (Blog Post on Shoreham-by-Sea) and then drove up to the top of Steyning Bostal. From this top, you get a panoramic view of the Downs along the South coast of England followed by the sea. If you further strain your eyes on a clear day like this, you might be able to see the white cliffs of Rottingdean following the coastal curve to Eastbourne. The Brighton eye with its dome like structure (I refer to it as the Brighton doughnut) stands tall in the distance.

From here, a narrow bridleway takes you up the hill following a gradual but steady climb. We come to a cross-road where the road markers show three different ways. We chose the path marked as ‘The South Downs Way’ (SDW) and make our way through blackberry-bushes that line up the narrow lanes, occasionally opening up to open green farmlands trodden by horses, sheep and cows – a typical English countryside. This time of the year – August-September, the country side in England is full of sweet bitter blackberries. We picked some and continued our walk munching these fresh fruity snacks. Following the SDW for about 3-4 KM, we come on to a big open hill. The climb gets steeper and steadier now and then it finally opens up to this rolling hilly land with what looks like a bunch of trees on top of a mound.

It is a sort of circular hill top full of tall shady trees (Warning- There are lots of stinging nettles. Got bitterly stung by a bush while trying to role-play an ancient Saxon king on top a rock) with a ditch cut out around it. It is supposed to be a pre-historic fort dating from late Bronze Age or early Iron Age. The story goes – after the fort was abandoned in some fourth century AD, this hill fort remained un-used except for grazing cattle until around 18^th century lots of beech trees were planted around the ditch shaped like a ring for beautification. (Ref: Wiki on Chanctonbury_Ring) The local story also says, after the Great Storm of 1987, trees have been re-planted on several occasions to acknowledge the beauty and the history of this site.

What I personally loved is the peace and quiet that the place offers along with some incredible views of many of my known hills of the South Downs hill range, including my favorite Wolstonbury Hill (Blog Post on Sussex South Downs).

After a good stroll and some relaxing time, you can follow the same way down or if you are stupidly adventurous like us, you can follow down a longer winding path through the downs. But whatever you do, definitely climb up to this ancient Chanctonbury Ring if you get a chance and if you love nature and hiking and hate crowd J