Decided to take a trip west into some urbanised south downs locations around Brighton. What follows is a compilation of the locations visited on the south downs near Brighton.

Hollingbury Hillfort Brighton

If it had been a misty morning would have done a sunrise from Kingston ridge but it was fog free and overcast so continued to scout out a new location in Brighton Hollingbury Hillfort. Unfortunately Hollingbury hillfort is surrounded by a golf course. Hollingbury hillfort is the other side of Ditchling road leading into Brighton and close to the golf course entry there is free parking.

Arriving at dawn you only had numerous dog walkers to dodge rather than deadly golf balls. Scurrying around for a composition before the golfers turned up. The best composition included the golf course and views east to Kingston ridge and mount caburn. Could not include the ramparts of Hollingbury hillfort itself to give a sense of location. It included too much dead space. Hate dead space like to fill the frame with interest even if a lot of that is negative space.

Beacon Hill Rottingdean

From Hollingbury made my way to Beacon Hill Nature Reserve also on the south downs, also surrounded by urbanisation. Have photographed the windmill here before long time ago when first got into landscape photography. As in the area thought would give it another go.

Rottingdean windmill itself is very photogenic providing a strong subject but the best viewpoint of the windmill includes all the urban buildings. Not much you can do to exclude them. Further along Beacon Hill and facing west were some views of the Brighton coastline and the two piers.

Had to use the 400mm lens for this to work at this distance. using a 10 second timer, on a tripod and blocking the wind with my body. This could work better at dusk, blue hour, sun setting and all the Brighton city lights coming on. Not much can do about the urban clutter in the bottom third of the frame. The 1.4 extender might help giving 560mm reach. Would have preferred better separation between the east and ruins of the west pier.

Cattle Hill and the Happy Valley

After Beacon Hill I did scout out a few more locations of the South Downs around Brighton. The 11th century St Wulfrens church and Cattle hill but left my camera in the car. Could not get a good viewpoint on the church and the views of Brighton seafront from Cattle hill were not as good as those from Beacon Hill although a lot closer. There is another hill closeby here called red hill with a trig point (and a golf course) that usually implies a good view. All this is discoverable on OS Maps online. Then onto the Happy valley and mount pleasant but again no good compositions and left the camera in the car.

Falmer Road Brighton

On the drive home from Brighton passed along the Falmer Road to join the A27. During this time the overcast sky and clouds were breaking up. To the east are breathtaking views of the South Downs to the Kingston Ridge, Lewes and Mount Caburn.

The Falmer road gets busy late morning but there are numerous laybys where you can park up for free. There is then a concrete cycle path that runs the whole length that you can walk along.

There are footpaths leading inland over Newmarket hill and onto Kingston Ridge. With the breaking clouds beautiful light with pools of light and shadow.

Glynde Mount Caburn

On the drive home along the A27 pulled over to the Windsock Shack for some refreshments. Highly recommend this place if you are a coffee snob and love quality food. Quite often my energy levels run low before time has run out. Better when its the other way around. A hot cup of coffee and bacon roll can do wonders. After which I continued down the lane towards Glynde under the gaze of Mount Caburn.

Still had some beautiful early afternoon light, pools of light and shadow on the hillside and some traditional stone cottages in the midground. Had to pull over on the narrow lane and start shooting. Lots of chaos and distractions in the foreground to exclude.

Great day out around the south downs near Brighton. Covered a lot of ground in both the car and on foot. Discovered new locations and planted the seed for return visits.

Check out the November 2022 landscape photography gallery

Check out the East Sussex landscape photography gallery