Seven Sisters

The Seven Sisters are chalk cliffs on the English Channel coast in East Sussex. They form part of the South Downs range and stretch between the River Cuckmere near Seaford and Beachy Head near Eastbourne. The cliffs are separated by dry valleys slowly worn away by the sea. Some of the cliffs and nearby countryside belong to the Seven Sisters Country Park, which lies inland from the A259 road and within the South Downs National Park. The cliffs were once home to a Saxon fishing village called Exceat, abandoned after the bubonic plague in the 1400s. Only a single stone from its church remains. In 1926 developers proposed building a new town on the cliffs, but conservationists including Rudyard Kipling raised £17,000 in a month to stop the plan. Their success preserved the coastline for public use. Visitors follow the South Downs Way along the cliff edge, passing named hills and valleys such as Haven Brow, Rough Brow and Michel Dean. The path leads to Birling Gap and then to Belle Tout Lighthouse and Beachy Head. The cliffs appear in films like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Atonement, and in TV series such as The Walking Dead. The white chalk remains bright because the cliffs are left to erode naturally.