Foreign travel has made the Brits blasé about home grown natural features. In Victorian times the Devil’s Dyke in East Sussex was so popular that it could attract up to 30,000 people in a single day. A cable car ran across the valley and there was a funicular from the village of Poynings to take people to the top.

Today if you park at the car park at Summerdown and undertake the circular walk around the Devil’s Dyke you will certainly encounter fellow walkers not to mention any number of sublimely happy dogs. But you will also have plenty of time to enjoy quiet woodland areas by yourself. As a honey pot for mass tourism the Devil’s Dyke has had its day and this kind of carnival activity is long gone, though the remains of old pylon bases that supported the cable car can still be seen on the hillside.

The cause of the Victorian’s fascination was a deep trench formed at the end of the last ice age by a process known as solifluction or soil creep. What happened was that the meltwaters caused the higher ground to become staturated with water and then the waterlogged sediment moved down hill over the underlying frozen material. What is left is a dry valley much like other dry valleys but larger, deeper and steeper. 

Cock up

Legend has a far more colourful version of events. It was said that the devil was infuriated by the religious enthusiasm of the good people of Sussex and decided to dig a ditch to the sea and drown all the churches. He was in the middle of this task when he was disturbed by an old woman carrying a lighted candle and a sieve. The light woke a nearby cock which began to crow and the devil seeing the candle through the sieve thought that dawn was about to break and fled leaving his task unfinished. Legend does not tell why he did not bother to come back and finish the job the next night. But perhaps it is unreasonable to expect the devil to have the Protestant work ethic even when carrying out ungodly tasks. Or perhaps he has a low boredom threshold and decided to have a go at the Devil’s Punchbowl instead.
 
A Devil of a climb

Though the Devil’s Dyke is interesting to my mind the view from the top across the Weald to the sea is way more spectacular. The walk is well signposted; go anticlockwise to see the view from the Weald first, clockwise to encounter the Devil’s Dyke first. Can’t decide which you would rather see, Anti clockwise is definitely tougher and the climb up steps cut into the hillside will leave all but the super-fit panting – even the dogs. Don’t even think of trying to make it if you stop for a large lunch in the Royal Oak in Poynings. For those who don’t categorise themselves in even the moderately fit category, buses leave for the Devil’s Dyke at regular intervals from the Brighton Pier stopping at the Devil’s Dyke Pub. But walkers will scorn the bus knowing the reward of a pint will taste all the better if you get yourself seriously out of breath.