Devil's Dyke Discovery Trail

How to follow the trail 

Look out for QR codes on posts and benches around the route. Scan them on your phone to watch short videos and find out what makes Devil’s Dyke so special. 

Use the map to follow the full route, or explore the ramparts at your own pace. When you find a Discovery Trail plaque, scan the QR code with an internet-enabled device to watch the video. 

You will also find sound boxes at the Victorian Payground, in the Devil's Copse and on the South Downs Way at Saddlescombe Farm. Turn the handle to play and choose from eight tracks, including stories of the Downs, a guided meditation from Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, and a poem created by artists working with Writing Our Legacy. 
Take part in a quick wildlife quiz or try the Discovery Trail challenge.

If you can’t visit in person, you can still follow the trail by watching the videos below. 

1 – Welcome to Devil’s Dyke. QR code on the viewpoint signs and post by the car park

2 – Iron Age Hillfort - Walk to the edge of the car park and find a post on the edge of the grass. This has a plaque for video 1 and 2

3 – Victorian Fairground – walk from the car park, east away from the viewpoint towards the remains of the bicycle railway and find a post there with a plaque and QR code

4 – How the Dyke was formed - walk east from the bicycle railway and find the ramparts, turn south and follow the path down towards the valley, you will then turn and start to head west. Keep walking along the chalk path parallel to the valley and you’ll come across a post with two plaques. Scan number 4 to take you to the video

5 – Devil’s Dyke at war – on the same post, you’ll find a QR code for video 5.

6 – Why grazing matters – keep heading west until you get to where several paths meet, head down towards the gate that takes you into the valley. Here you’ll find a plaque for the next video.

7 – Britain’s ‘mini rainforest’ – walk down to the entrance to the valley, if you look up to the west, you’ll see a bench, that’s where the next plaque is. From here you can head back to the car park for video 9 or keep following the path to go to the dew pond.

8 – Discovering dew ponds – if you would like to discover further, you can head south, up the valley towards the dew pond. Look out for the South Downs Way signposts and then a point where paths cross and take a right onto a new path which takes you to the pond.

9 – Hidden Histories – head back to the car park and viewpoint, on the left hand side of the signage you’ll fine a QR code for the final video

Poems of the Downs 

In partnership with Writing Our Legacy @ Changing Chalk, local artists have created poems about the South Downs. They’ve recorded these for you to hear at the sound boxes around the trail and at Saddlescombe Farm.  

Daughter of the Devil by Jenny Arach and read by Oluwafemi Rain Hughes’s.

Jenny is a Poet drawing on East-African and Sussex heritage. Oluwafemi’s poetry can be heard at the ‘We See you / Hear you Now’ Project, Seven Sisters.

Getting Out by Ronny Flynn.

Ronny joined Writing Our Legacy in 2024 and is of Anglo-Indian heritage. Writing privately but gaining confidence to share her work. 

Walk to Saddlescombe Farm by Lu-Hai Liang.

Lu-Hai is a writer and journalist. He was born in Guilin, China and grew up in Hastings, England. 

Writing Our Legacy CIC is an arts and heritage organisation that enables Black, Asian and ethnically diverse/BPOC people to tell their stories through writing and the creative arts. 
 

New art celebrates the people and landscape at Devil's Dyke.

At the start of the Discovery Trail look out for a new piece of art celebrating the landscape and people of the area. It was commissioned as part of the Changing Chalk Project and has been created by Bo, an exciting new local artist. Find out more in the article below. 

Led by the National Trust, Changing Chalk brought together partners, communities, volunteers and creatives to restore rare chalk grassland, improve access to nature, and uncover and share the rich cultural heritage of the Downs. The four-year project was supported by a £2.23 million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and made possible thanks to National Lottery players. The project was also supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, The Linbury Trust and other generous supporters.