The Seven Sisters, East Sussex
A spectacular range of chalk cliffs
The Seven Sisters are a series of sheer chalk cliffs, up to 500 feet high, on the coast of East Sussex between Newhaven and Eastbourne. Geologically they are part of the South Downs and are now included in the South Downs National Park that was created in 2011.
The Seven Sisters were formed when a series of parallel valleys was cut into the chalk by streams that flowed when vast quantities of water were released by melting glaciers at the end of the last ice age. The amount of rain that falls under normal conditions is not enough to keep the streams flowing, given that most of the water percolates down into the soft chalk to leave “dry valleys” behind. As the cliffs have been eroded by the sea the valleys have been left as vertical indentations in the line of the cliffs, resulting in the “sisters” standing up prominently between them.
The name “Seven Sisters” comes from Greek mythology, in which they were the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. When they died they were turned into the stars of the Pleiades cluster, which is also known as the Seven Sisters. However, one small problem with the Sussex version is that there are, in fact, eight distinct peaks! To be fair, there were originally seven (named Haven Brow, Short Brow, Rough Brow, Brass Brow, Flat Brow, Baily’s Hill and…
