Cuckmere Haven
Cuckmere Haven at the mouth of the Cuckmere River in East Sussex is one of the finest and most celebrated coastal landscapes in southeast England, a wide floodplain valley where the Cuckmere meanders through water meadows to the sea between the white chalk cliffs of the Seven Sisters on the east and the lower ground of the Seaford Head nature reserve on the west. The combination of the meandering river, the floodplain grassland and the dramatic backdrop of the Seven Sisters cliffs creates one of the most photographed and most widely recognised coastal scenes in England.
The Cuckmere floodplain is managed by the South Downs National Park as a nature reserve and the water meadows support a rich community of wetland birds and plants in a landscape that has been largely protected from development by the combined designation of the National Park and the Heritage Coast. The estuary at Cuckmere Haven is one of the few undeveloped estuaries remaining on the south coast, its character as a natural shingle beach at the river mouth providing a contrast to the managed harbours and resorts of the surrounding coast.
The coastal path from Cuckmere Haven east along the top of the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs is one of the classic walks of the south coast, the succession of white chalk headlands providing spectacular views across the English Channel to the French coast visible on clear days. The walk west from the haven across Seaford Head provides equally excellent cliff scenery above the Ouse estuary.