The track up to Blackdown

It is a steep climb up to the top of Blackdown; it is after all the highest point in Sussex.  Tracks like this one were old drove roads to move cattle between the heathland on top and the better pasture on the lower ground.  This one ran along side a boundary bank of neatly laid sandstone blocks surmounted by a beech hedge.  This has not been tended for years, so it has grown into a row of precariously balanced trees.

The sides of Blackdown are covered in beech woods with an understory of holly.  This too dense to allow any ground flora. but there are lots of mosses on the stone walls.  Holly would have been browsed by the cattle as they walked up and down.

The height of Blackdown means that it is one of the few places in West Sussex where you will find bilberry.  It is in flower now, as is the gorse.  The National Trust have been restoring the heathland on top of the hill and have cleared a lot of conifer plantation. They keep belted galloway cattle there to manage the regrowth of heathland flora.  They are small, hairy and inquisitive.  One took quite an interest in us as we sat down to have lunch, before moving on to continue feeding on bramble leaves.