Sussex Walks: Kingley Vale and Devil’s Humps Loop.

dogs - mostly fine off lead | all trails route | parking - via RingGo @ £1.50

Having been steadily climbing without realising, so lost in chat and observing the first signs of Spring, the Devil’s Humps came as a surprise on this delicious walk at Kingly Vale near Chichester. The beginning of the walk has you fooled - what appears to be a flat network of paths through the ancient woodland is actually just a small part of the picture.

We found ourselves here on a brisk but bright, sunny day at the end of February. A friend and I had bought our vans to stay locally, staying at home watching the news of everything unfolding in Ukraine was devastating and as we sat there cradling a bowl of steaming pasta the evening before this walk and discussing the situation I had never felt so grateful for my freedom.

It had been a chilly old night with both of us having had interrupted sleep - though it seems the dogs did alright, snuggling themselves up in our duvets!

Starting at the car park, which was incredibly busy with dog walkers, families, horse riders and cyclists to name a few, we headed on down the track and as we got to the forest we deliberated as to whether go left or straight on. It turns out this was definitely the right route because we’ll find ourselves later in the walk at the top of the most epic flight of stairs, smug as we picked our way down past the people huffing and puffing up.

I had no idea that this walk was going to throw up such epicness. When we got to the Devil’s Hump we started to understand why this was such a popular spot with views across the land to the sea and Chichester Harbour. It is unknown what the Devil’s Humps are but the location and structure suggests that they ar graves or something of remembrance. Kingly Vale is a popular spot for ghost hunters as it’s said the large number of yew trees mark viking graves and haunt the woods at night.

When you leave the Devil’s Humps and start descending you come across the earlier mentioned staircase which nourishes you with views across the vale. Enjoy them as at the bottom you’ll head through the yew trees and back to the path you started on. You do feel like there is a wisdom here, natures intelligence at play.

An epic AllTrails this, not to be missed. And you must stop in Design Vintage after too - interiors to swoon after and it’s the law to buy yourself a nice cup to remember your day out.

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