Upwaltham
Petworth
Children will enjoy the sunflowers in August and a seasonal café stop.
Sunflowers growing at Littlton Farm
The Basics
Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Distance: 4.5 km / 2.8 miles
Terrain: Fields, bridle ways, uneven woodland path. Long and gradual hill climb.
Pushchairs: This route is not suitable for pushchairs.
Dogs: Dogs are welcome on this walk as well as at the cafe.
Refreshments: Cadence Cycle Club, Upwaltham, sells toasties, breakfasts, hot snacks, cakes, pastries and an excellent range of hot and cold drinks from a converted container in an open-air farmyard (March-October).
Toilets: A Portaloo toilet is available for cafe customers.
Public Transport: There is no public transport to this location.
Parking: Small, free car park at Duncton Viewpoint, signposted from the A285 (Postcode: GU28 0NA - W3W: ///workbook.employ.spite)
Views from Duncton Hill Viewpoint
Every year, sunflowers are grown at Littleton Farm at the side of the South Downs Way. And every year we seem to miss them! As you can see from the photos, by the end of August this year, they had passed their best. But were we disappointed? No, because we still found an excellent walk with marvellous views as well as a stop with delicious coffee and toasties. We concluded that with or without the sunflowers, this is still a walk well worth doing.
The Route
After enjoying the view, find the unmarked path going into the scrub. This will be to your right if facing the road and also to the right of a black bin. Follow this uneven, and perhaps a little overgrown, path through the scrub for a short time. You should hear the traffic of the A285 up to your left and the ground will slope away to your right. You will soon meet a wider path, which you should join and veer left up the hill. After a few metres, keep left at the fork, continuing up the hill. The next path that you need to take is unmarked and can be easy to miss. It will be the first path branching off to your left and is a very thin path snaking off through the trees. Fortunately, at the time of writing, there are a significant number of branches laying across the path from a fallen tree and this provides a helpful landmark at the point you need to turn. Follow the path and in just a few metres, you should emerge from the trees onto a semi-paved access track for the quarry.
Cross the track and go through the gate opposite, keeping right to follow the restricted byway up the gradual hill. You should stick with this track for around 30 minutes/1.5 km, ignoring any paths branching off to the left or right, until you get to a large cross paths with a bench facing the view.
Turn left at the cross paths, and after a lightly wooded area, you will reach a gate that leads you out into the open. Follow the path straight ahead and make your way across and then down Littleton Down. If you visit in August, it is here that you may be lucky enough to see sunflowers framing the magnificent South Downs landscape. Continue following the path through one open gateway, and then another when you reach the bottom of the hill (if you want to visit Cadence for refreshments, you will need to continue down the hill, through the gate towards the road and then return to this point afterwards).
Turn left before the gate (this will, of course, be right after the gate if you are coming back from the cafe). Follow the track and soon ignore the first right turn going down hill towards the farm. Continue for a few metres more after that until the next junction, where you should turn right, heading upwards. Continue in the same direction when the path comes out into an open field. When you reach a corner of woodland jutting out into the field, look for a path that heads into the trees on your left. It is currently unmarked and you will notice there has been some recent tree cutting in the area. Follow the track through the trees until you come back to the gate that leads you out onto the quarry track again. Cross over and look for the little path through the trees and then re-trace your steps back to the car park.
Please note, this is not a sunflower patch that is open to the public for picking and posing. A public right of way runs through the patch, allowing walkers to view and photograph the flowers from the path ONLY. You should never attempt to walk through or pick any of the flowers.
Gain access to the member's only area of our website where you will find the complete A-Z library of all our PDF files. This includes over 220 self-guided walks ready to print or download, as well as various children's activity sheets. You will also find a digital membership card, giving you access to our current discounts.
Did you know?
Cadence Cycle Club has a network of similar cafes along the South Downs Way from Winchester to Eastbourne. The hubs make the perfect places for cyclists, walkers and runners to stop and refuel.
If you enjoyed this walk…
… try this one at Levin Down with some similar South Downs scenery and a pub stop.
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