South Downs National Park

The South Downs became a national park in 2011, the most recent in England, after a campaign running back to the 1940s; it covers about 1,600 square kilometres and is the most densely populated national park in Britain, with over a hundred thousand residents inside it, which shapes the argument about what it is for. The landscape is chalk downland, thin turf grazed by sheep for millennia and supporting orchids, butterflies and skylarks, dropping to a steep north-facing scarp and running gently south to the sea. The South Downs Way follows the ridge for a hundred miles from Winchester to Eastbourne, walkable in about a week and the only national trail entirely rideable on horseback. The park was designated an International Dark Sky Reserve in 2016.

What you actually see

• The chalk grassland - thin sheep-cropped turf with orchids and butterflies.
• The South Downs Way - a hundred-mile ridge trail from Winchester to Eastbourne.
• The scarp slope - a steep northern face with views over the Weald.
• The dark skies - an International Dark Sky Reserve since 2016.

When to go

April to October for walking, with June and July best for orchids and butterflies; autumn brings clearer air. The chalk drains fast, so the ridge stays walkable after rain when the clay below does not.

Honest expectations

There is very little surface water on chalk, so walkers must carry all they need. The park contains towns, main roads and the Brighton conurbation, and it is not wilderness. Much of the grassland has been ploughed historically and the flower-rich turf survives in fragments.

Nearby

Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters are at the eastern end; Winchester lies at the western.