There is a newly revamped visitors’ centre at the top of Beachy Head, 40 minutes’ hike from the western end of Eastbourne’s four-mile long promenade (or an easy ride on an e-bike from exciting new Cadence Cycles.)
The Beachy Head Story opened last May. Small but perfectly formed, the centre – which is free to enter – explains the history of this beautiful headland from millions of years ago until the present. The stories that accompany the fossils, ancient tools and the skeleton of a woman who died here two millennia ago, all evoke the magic of the place. As do the projections and sounds of sea creatures, sheep bells and skylarks.
The text too is full of pathos; a poignant reminder of our brief existence. “The Beaker people, Celts, Romans and Saxons…We piece their lives together through finding the things they dropped, discarded or buried…We know they were here, living… loving… laughing… mourning… feeling all the things we feel today yet separated by generations. That separation shouldn’t make them distant though. Spend time on the Downs; listen, feel the wind on your face and smell the air. Some of those sensations are the same these people experienced. In those moments the past can seem very close indeed.”
I snap back into the modern world with a pint of lime and soda in the Beachy Head Inn next door before continuing westwards. Tourists lean dangerously over the cliffs to photograph the stripy lighthouse while stonechats perch easily on yellow flowering gorse.
After passing the teetering cottages of Birling Gap I stop for a picnic in what the map says is Flagstaff Bottom, one of the low points between two of the ‘sisters’. I lie on long dry grass loosely embroidered with the finest strands of spider silk that shimmer in an almost imperceptible breeze. A flock of black backed gulls pass below the cliff edge. The sea is flat, calm and glitters brightly. The only sound is that of gentle waves breaking on pebbles far below. I would not be here if it weren’t for this sunshine. This is what holidays are all about. No wonder sunlight reduces stress levels and lowers blood pressure. Not to mention making Vitamin D and zapping bacteria.
