Cissbury
(Click on the images for a larger view)
The South Downs has an array of fantastic spots where hikers can look out and enjoy the best of what Sussex has to offer, with views of the shoreline often visible from various points across the national park. However, Cissbury just north of Worthing probably has the best panoramic views across Brighton, Worthing, to one side and Bognor and Arundel on the other.
Cissbury Ring is the most historic hill on the South Downs, it’s the largest hillfort in Sussex and has a history dating back over 5,000 years.
beginning of the Middle Iron-Age possibly around 250 BC but abandoned in the period 50 BC – 50 AD.
The site of the fort contains a Neolithic mine, one of the first flint mines in Britain. Around 200 shafts were dug into Cissbury hill over around 900 years of use. In the early eleventh century in the reign of Ethelred the Unready, Cissbury was known as ‘Sith(m)esteburh’, which is taken to mean the ‘last or the latest fort’. This may mean that Cissbury was the last fort to be refortified, after another nearby fort such as that at Burpham. It seems that the name Cissbury was altered to accommodate the legend that the fort was linked to Cissa the South Saxon.