Birling Gap is the one place where you can get down to the sea along the whole run of the Seven Sisters — a dip in the chalk where a steep metal staircase drops from the clifftop to a shingle and rock beach.
It sits about six kilometres west of Eastbourne, between Beachy Head and the Sisters themselves, and the National Trust runs the site: a car park, a café, a small visitor centre and the staircase.
The Seven Sisters are a series of chalk headlands running west from Birling Gap towards Cuckmere Haven — the exposed ends of a set of dry valleys, cut when the chalk was frozen and rainwater could not soak away, and then sliced through by the sea.
They are the most photographed stretch of the English coast after the White Cliffs of Dover, and unlike Dover they are almost entirely undeveloped. There is no promenade, no railing, no built edge. The chalk is white because it is eroding, and it erodes fast: something in the order of half a metre a year, taken not gradually but in occasional large falls.
You can see the consequence at Birling Gap itself. A row of coastguard cottages once stood here; most have gone over the edge, and the survivors are counted in years rather than decades. The staircase has been rebuilt and repositioned more than once.
At the bottom of the stairs is a beach of shingle and chalk platform, backed by the cliff face.
At low tide it opens out and the rock pools on the wave-cut platform are excellent — anemones, crabs, blennies, and a great deal of chalk. At high tide the beach largely disappears and the sea comes to the cliff, which is exactly the situation you do not want to be caught in. Check the tide before you go down. People have needed rescuing here, and the warnings are not decoration.
Do not sit or stand under the cliff face. Rockfalls happen without warning, and the National Trust signs saying so are responding to actual incidents.
Swimming is possible but the beach shelves and there are no lifeguards.
The clifftop path is the reason most people come. West from Birling Gap the South Downs Way runs over the Seven Sisters to Cuckmere Haven — about five kilometres of relentless up-and-down over the seven summits, with the finest coastal views in southern England.
East, it climbs to Beachy Head and the lighthouse, and on into Eastbourne — about eight kilometres.
Neither direction is flat, but neither is technical. There are no fences at the cliff edge, which is deliberate and which needs respecting: the chalk overhangs, the edge is not where it looks, and every year there are incidents involving people who went closer than the ground could carry.
Access to the site is free; the National Trust car park is charged and is free to members. It fills by mid-morning at weekends and in summer.
Café and shop at the top, open most of the year, with a good view.
Toilets on site.
The staircase is steep metal with handrails and is the only way down. It is not accessible, and it is closed occasionally after cliff falls.
Wind: this is one of the most exposed places on the south coast. Take more than you think.
Buses: the seasonal coastal service from Eastbourne stops here, which makes a one-way walk easy.
Yes, by a steep metal staircase — the only access along the whole run of the Seven Sisters. Check the tide first, because the beach disappears at high water.
The site is free; parking is charged and free to National Trust members.
About six kilometres west, or an eight-kilometre clifftop walk over Beachy Head.
The clifftop is unfenced and the chalk erodes constantly — stay well back from the edge and do not sit beneath the cliff face on the beach.
West along the South Downs Way over the Seven Sisters to Cuckmere Haven, about five kilometres of steep ups and downs.