New national nature reserve declared on Seven Sisters landscape
Natural England is officially launching the King Charles III England Coast Path
The picturesque Seven Sisters cliff landscape in East Sussex has been named England’s newest national nature reserve.
Natural England is officially launching the King Charles III England Coast Path, which passes through the newly declared national reserve situated in the chalklands of Seven Sisters.
This coast path, nearing completion, is expected to become the world’s longest managed coastal walking route at approximately 2,700 miles. It has been nearly two decades in the making and estimates suggest it would take about a year to walk, allowing for weekends off.
The path traverses the iconic Seven Sisters cliffs, a site known for inspiring the works of Rudyard Kipling, and serving as a backdrop in films like Atonement, Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire, and Wicked.
The new national nature reserve covers 1,500 hectares and stretches across the cliffs and the Cuckmere River within the South Downs National Park.
It includes rare habitats such as chalk grasslands, heath, and floodplain meadows, hosting wildlife like chalkhill blue butterflies, skylarks, and bee orchids. The cliffs and coastline attract up to a million annual visitors to Sussex.
Tony Juniper, chairman of Natural England, described the area as ‘remarkable,’ due to its diversity and beauty.
The designation of the Seven Sisters National Nature Reserve marks the halfway milestone of the King's Series of National Nature Reserves, backed by Charles.
The programme aims to create or extend 25 national reserves by 2028, with 13 already declared, covering twice the area of Brighton city.
Since 2009, Natural England has been developing the King Charles III England Coast Path to provide national coastal access around England, creating around 1,000 miles of new legal access. The path offers access on foot between the path and low water, including beaches and cliffs.
Renamed to mark the King’s coronation, the path features part of established national trails like the South West and Norfolk coast paths.
Habitat and Wildlife
In certain areas, such as seal pupping sites or bird wintering grounds, there will be restrictions to protect nature. The path prioritises gates or gaps instead of stiles, improved access routes, such as in Falmouth, Cornwall, where a local woman with cerebral palsy accessed the path for the first time.
All proposals and submissions for the 2,700-mile route have been published with plans anticipating 90% infrastructure completion by summer.
All of the proposals for the 2,700 mile route have been published and submitted to Government, with the Natural England team expecting to have completed 90% of infrastructure work by the summer – although the vast majority of the path will already be walkable as most is natural surface.
Natural England’s programme manager for the coast path, Neil Constable said: “The whole point of this will be that you can basically hit the coast anywhere and turn right or left, and there should be assigned route to follow.”
He said the £28 million scheme had had to deal with “curveballs” such as nature conservation rulings, Covid, and the increase in material costs after the invasion of Ukraine.
But he added: “Give it 20 years, and it will take on its own identity, its own focus, things will come out of it – there will be a lot of books written about it, and so on.”