Conference moira::naturism

265.0. "Fairlight Glen, CO beach near Hastings, England" by JANUS::RDAVIES (Intrepid explorer extraordinaire) Mon Aug 20 1990 16:46

OK, time for directions to Fairlight Glen, which is near Hastings on the 
south coast of England, for those already here, and those venturing across
the pond....

From Brighton (from Brighton cos it's partly a reply to 259), follow the 
A27 towards LEWES, then POLEGATE/EASTBOURNE. When you reach Polegate,
follow the signs for the A259/A27 towards PEVENSEY/BEXHILL/HASTINGS.
This takes you through Pevensey (...which has quite a nice castle, for 
those of you who like ruined castles, which the road nearly runs into, 
but misses at the last moment...), through Bexhill, and on to HASTINGS.

When you get to Hastings, keep following the road along the seafront, right 
to the end of the seafront, where there is a Crazy Golf on the right, and
some fishing boat sheds straight ahead [good place to get fresh fish here, 
if you like fish and are cooking for yourself. Probably not a good idea to
get it on the way to the beach tho :-) ]. The road curves round to the left. 
Follow the road, and a couple of hundred yards up the road, there is a 
church on the left-hand side, with a bit of a green on the right, and a road
with a camping sign pointing that way. TURN RIGHT HERE! Follow the road to 
the left, and up the hill and down the other side (it's not a very big hill)
until you reach a crossroads, with the camping sign pointing right. 
TURN RIGHT HERE! Follow the road up the hill (a bit steeper this time), and
follow the road to the left at the top, past a pub on the right (it's where
the pub sign is, honest, you just can't see it behind the bushes!) and towards 
a coupe of caravan sites. 

This is where you need a reasonable ground clearance on your car! 
(No MG Midgets!). Follow the road past the two caravan sites, along what looks
like a sort of farm track with a large campsite on the left. Keep going until
you get to the end (it's only about 100 yards). There are likely to be lots
of cars parked along here if it's hot, so locate a parking space on the verge
(mind the ditch, and make sure you leave yourself enough room to get out again!)
and park the car.

OK, hiking shoes on! (it's not that far really, about a mile) (however, I DO 
suggest training shoes, rather than stillettos, ladies - remember it's 
cross-country, and you have to walk back too!)

At the end of the road, there is a gate on the right, with a stile, next to 
a driveway to a farmhouse. Over the stile, and follow the path into the 
small wood. About another 100 yards further on you'll come to a fork in the
path, with a sign post pointing to the left (uphill) towards Fairlight Glen
(which is where we're going!). Follow the sign uphill, out of the wood, across
the side of the field to the top of the hill, where the is a small pond, and
a gate. Through the gate, and follow the path downhill. You can see the cliffs 
above Fairlight Glen from here, so head for there! 

Keep following the path downhill, down a series of steps through another 
small wood, across another open grassed bit (you can see the cliffs even better 
from here!), and down into another small wooded area. Here there is a path 
to the right, signposted Fairlight Glen - take this one (if you keep going 
past it, you start going uphill again!). Follow the path through the small 
wood to the edge of the cliff, and down the steps to 

THE BEACH! 

THIS IS IT, YOU'VE FOUND IT!!!!!

It's not as complicated as it sounds - mostly you just follow the path, and 
it takes you straight there. You can also reach Fairlight Glen on foot from 
Hastings, either across the top of the cliff, or along the beach (but ONLY
AT OR NEAR LOW TIDE - YOU WILL GET CUT OFF AT HIGH TIDE). It's about 2 miles
on foot to Hastings, but some nice rolling hills to walk along.

The beach is shingle/pebbles at high tide, with a reasonable area of sand and 
rocks at low tide. The sea is reasonably shallow near the beach, and not too 
rough unless there is a strong wind blowing on-shore. The beach stretches all 
the way along under the cliffs for a mile or so in either direction, and can 
be reached at all but high tide by climbing over a short series of rocks (easy), 
from the main beach at Fairlight Glen. As this is a fairly remote bit of the 
coastline, no-one minds you walking along the whole length of the beach nude 
(in fact as you get a reasonable distance from Fairlight Glen, you may not 
actually meet anyone!)

On a hot weekend, there will probably be about 100 or so families/couples/
singles there, with a generally easy-going atmosphere, with people willing
to talk to you etc.

Hope this helps for anyone planning on visiting.

If you want a map or whatever, mail me and I'll see what I can find.

Cheers,

Rob.