Birling Gap

Birling Gap is a small hamlet on the Seven Sisters, the chain of white chalk cliffs on the East Sussex coast. Metal staircases lead down to a shingle beach below the cliffs; at low tide, rock platforms and rock pools are exposed. According to the National Trust, the rock beneath the dry valley erodes by about a metre a year, and in 2014 storms removed in roughly two months what would normally take seven years. The National Trust advises keeping at least 5 m back from the cliff edge and the cliff base, checking the tides and not walking more than 150 m from the beach access.

There is a café in the National Trust visitor centre. To the east, a walk leads to the former Belle Tout lighthouse (built from 1831, decommissioned in 1902, now a bed and breakfast) and on to Beachy Head. To the west, the demanding route over the Seven Sisters takes you to Cuckmere Haven and Exceat, where buses run back (check the timetable).