What better way to climb the hill up to Selborne Common than via the zig-zag path that naturalist Gilbert White cut into the hillside over 200 years ago? Once you have enjoyed the views from above, make your way back down the beech hanger and enjoy refreshments from the pub at the bottom.

Just within the boundary of The South Downs National Park, Selborne is an attractive village with 267 acres of countryside looked after The National Trust. This walk follows the Short and Long Lythe, passes three ponds and returns through woodland.

‘The abandoned medieval village of Hartley Mauditt’ is how this place is mysteriously described on the ordinance survey map. As the description suggests, there is not much left of the village other than the 12th century church, a pond and some delightful countryside to explore.