The Devil's Dyke - West Sussex, England

The Devil's Dyke nestles in the South Downs, in West Sussex, north of Brighton, and is the largest chalkland dry combe in Britain. Home to many plants and butterflies, the summit affords breathtaking views north across the Weald and south over the shimmering waters of the English Channel. An open top, double decker bus runs hourly from Brighton Marina to the Devil's Dyke, and on a Summer evening, at around five o'clock, this is the trip to take. Wear heavy trainers or walking shoes though, because the Downs are scattered with numerous flint stones, which can cut your feet. Once there and off the bus, you have to stand for a few moments, take a deep breath and slowly turn full circle, taking in the dramatic rolling hills, the Weald and the sea.

People are flying kites, walking their dogs, riding their horses or bikes along the South Downs Way, or merely ambling and taking some light exercise on a warm, Summer's evening. Echoes of leather on willow can be heard from the cricket pitch below, and the twitter of larks is all around. Cows and sheep are scattered across the hillside... which they have grazed for 400 years... as I begin to descend into the Devil's Dyke. This is the deepest dry valley in the world and covers some two hundred acres of downland scarp, situated in a deep, dry valley, whose unique features were created after the last Ice Age. Water from the melting ice eroded the chalk downland to the permafrost layer and after the ground thawed, the water flowed straight through the chalk, leaving the dry valley, known as The Devil's Dyke.

Apparently, in Victorian times, great numbers of tourists were drawn to the Dyke by a host of attractions including two bandstands, an observatory, fairground rides, a switchback railway and an aerial cable railway across the combe, which was the first cable way in Britain. There was also The Devil's Dyke Railway, an eight hundred and forty foot long railway, up an incline from The Devils Dyke towards a village called Poynings.

Folklore says that Devil's Dyke got its name when the Devil was seriously miffed at the conversion of Sussex - one of the last counties to give up Paganism - and was deeply upset at the way churches were being springing up in every Sussex village. To teach the Christians a lesson, he decided to dig right through the South Downs to let the sea flood Sussex in a single night and drown the new Converts. Starting inland near the village of Poynings, the Devil attacked his task with gusto, sending huge clods of earth all over the place. Legend has it that these piles of earth became Chanctonbury Hill, Cissbury Hill, Rackham Hill and Mount Caburn. The Devil's digging made such a noise that he disturbed an old woman, who, upon realising that the Devil was being a very, very naughty boy, held up a candle behind a sieve and knocked a cockerel off his perch. The dim Devil heard the cockerel crowing, saw the light which he mistook for the sun rising, and fled the scene before he could finish the job. Some say that as he fled out over the English Channel towards France, a great lump of earth fell from his cloven hoof, which became the Isle of Wight. Others suggest that he ran northwards into Surrey, where his heavy landing formed the hollow called the Devil's Punch Bowl.

Others may, of course, say that the whole thing is a load of old hogwash, but there you have it, the legend of The Devil's Dyke.