Beachy Head

Beachy Head rises 162 m above the English Channel and is regarded as the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain. The chalk was laid down in the Late Cretaceous, some 66 to 100 million years ago. The headland lies near Eastbourne, immediately east of the Seven Sisters. The name comes from the French “Beauchef” (“beautiful headland”) and is first recorded in 1274. Below the cliff, out at sea, stands the red-and-white lighthouse; it replaced the Belle Tout lighthouse on the neighbouring headland to the west, whose light was often hidden by mist and low cloud. On a clear day the view stretches to Dungeness in the east and the Isle of Wight in the west.

In 1929 Eastbourne Borough Council bought about 1,600 hectares of the surrounding land to save it from development, and it became the Eastbourne Downland Estate. There are many walking routes; a popular one runs past Belle Tout to Birling Gap and on over the Seven Sisters. Keep well back from the edge at all times.