Lewes via Rodmell Circular - 9.6 miles

Our morning began at Victoria Station, which was large and any meeting needed to be co-ordinated military style with mobile phones instead of walkies talkies. The train journey to Lewes (pronounced Loo-wes, and not loos!) took just over an hour.

We had another glorious sunny day, it felt like proper summer had arrived. I felt a faint twinge of concern for the new baby hedgehogs born early but it felt lovely to have heat on the skin. Glorious global warming, eh?

We began our walk with a gander through the Southover Grange Gardens, where the flowers were in bloom around the fine Elizabethan house built in 1572 by William Newton, the Earl of Dorset. A stream runs through the garden and some of the oldest Mulberry trees date back around 350 years old.





We made our way out of the town, a long a trail that got gradually rougher and thiner until we began the steep climb up to the ridge. Ali and I were ahead and we didn't notice the incline as we were chatting until we both started gasping for air. It was pretty steep, which spurred Ali and Jonny to run to the top. Nutters.



The next section of the walk along the ridge afforded wonderful views over Lewes and the rolling fields of oil seed rape. Lewes is an old medieval town, so most of the buildings and houses were squat in the style of the Tudors. No skyscraper interrupted the view.





This trail was so popular someone decided to build a concrete path right across the top of the hills.



The brown mound is a mystery. According to the museum we visited later, no one knows where it came from, or why. But it's been there a long time.




Eventually, we descended to ground level and had lunch at the Abergavenny Arms, where the very kind manager re-filled our water bottles for no charge. The sun was still going strong so we sat in the gardens while we ate.

After lunch, we made our way past Monk's House, where Virginia Woolf resided. Our trail led us to the infamous river Ouse, where she drowned herself by filling her pockets with stones.

For the rest of the walk, we followed the bends of the river back to Lewes. Sights were sparse apart from the remnants of a medieval riverside settlement. But it felt wonderful to be striding away in the sun, with an unobstructed sky above us.







We made it back to Lewes in record time, so much so, we were disbelieving we had actually covered 9.6 miles. Ali checked the route on Google Earth later and it indicated we did. If Google said it, it must be true!

Since the old legs were doing fine, we climbed up to the crest of the hillside town and visited Lewes Castle. Built since 1066, Lewes Castle was one of string of castles build for fortification after the Norman conquest. The castle is unusual as it has two mottes, a fun fact we learned as we discovered the definition of "motte." The stairwell up the towers were tiny and narrow.









Usually, we just fade out on the return journey on the train and mumble a goodbye before going our separate ways. So it's a historic first that we had enough left to head to Jon's for a barbecue.