The South Downs Way

Look south from almost anywhere around the estate and the horizon is a long green wall: the escarpment of the South Downs. Along its crest runs the South Downs Way, a 100-mile national trail from Winchester to Eastbourne, and unusually it is a bridleway for its entire length — so walkers, cyclists and horse riders all share it. The nearest place to join it is Cocking Hill, where the trail crosses the A286 about three miles south of Midhurst — twenty minutes from the estate by car, with a car park at the top of the hill. Strong cyclists can ride over from the estate, though the last pull to the summit will have you out of the saddle.

Heading west, the trail climbs over Cocking Down and runs along the ridge with the Weald spread out to the north — on a clear day you can pick out Midhurst and, we like to think, the estate's own woods. After about two and a half miles you reach the Devil's Jumps near Treyford: a line of five Bronze Age burial mounds, strung out along the ridge and aligned, it is said, on the midsummer sunset. They make a natural turning point for a five-mile out-and-back, and a fine place to sit with a flask while the Weald performs its cloud-shadow show below you. Carry on further and the ridge rolls over Beacon Hill to Harting Down, a big sweep of National Trust chalk grassland with its own car park off the B2141 — useful if you would rather start a walk there and save your legs the climb.

Eastwards the trail passes above Heyshott and Graffham, where strips of flower-rich downland turf survive along the scarp, and on through beech hangers towards Bignor Hill. Up there the South Downs Way crosses Stane Street, the Roman road that once ran arrow-straight from Chichester to London — you can still walk a stretch of its raised embankment through the woods. Strong walkers can make a full day of it and drop off the Downs at Amberley; with two cars, or a patient driver, it is one of the finest linear walks in Sussex.

The soundtrack of the ridge in spring and summer is the skylark, pouring out song from a speck high overhead, with yellowhammers wheezing their little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese from the scrub and meadow pipits parachuting over the grass. Buzzards are constant, and red kites — once a rarity here — now drift along the scarp most days. In July and August the old turf comes alive with chalk downland butterflies, including the powder-blue chalkhill blue. Bring binoculars; the ridge is generous.

• Weather — the ridge is high, open and exposed. It is glorious in sunshine and character-building in horizontal rain, so pack a layer more than the valley suggests.
• Underfoot — chalk is kind in summer and treacherously slick after winter rain. Boots, not trainers, from October to April.
• Water — there is little to none on the top. Carry what you need, especially for dogs in summer.
• Dogs — welcome, but much of the ridge is grazed by sheep and cattle, so leads near livestock, and note that skylarks nest on the ground in the grass from spring to mid-summer.
• Cycling — the trail is superb on a gravel or mountain bike; the Cocking-to-Harting section is a local favourite. Give walkers and horses room.
• Getting back — the number 60 bus between Midhurst and Chichester runs along the A286 past the foot of Cocking Hill, which makes one-way walks possible without a second car.