Beachy Head is very well known for its lighthouse.  Built at the base of the cliffs, fantastic views are to be had from various vantage points when walking high above it.

At some points on the edges of the cliffs, fences have been put up, with signs warning of cliff erosion.  We saw people hop over these fences to get a better view of the lighthouse and to take photos.  At one point I even hopped over myself.  You do not need to do this!  I ended up deleting all of the photos I took from the “danger” point because the shots were not actually that good.  There were better (and safer) vantage points from many other places.  This next photo shows the extent of the erosion at Beachy Head.

There are plenty of opportunities to get as close to the cliff edge as you want, without having to go to the fenced off parts.

As this next photo shows, it is rather a long way down should the bit of cliff you are standing on happen to come away.  I like this photo – if you click on it to get the full size image you can see the gap between the legs of the walker at the top of the cliff.

The lighthouse at Beachy Head was built in 1902 out of 3,660 tons of Cornish Granite.  This rock was taken up to the cliff-top and then put in a cable car.  From there it was lowered across to the lighthouse platform and put into place.  It stands 43 metres high.  The lighthouse used to be manned but since 1983 has been fully automated.

The lighthouse at Beachy Head was not the first to be built here.  That accolade falls to the Belle Tout lighthouse, but Belle Tout is slightly further along the cliffs.  We set off and headed that way.

Points on this part of the walk (copy and paste the co-ordinates into Google Earth):

• Beachy Head Lighthouse:  N 50° 44.025 E 000° 14.487

Walk #47 Statistics (of which this post forms the fifth part):

• Date of Walk: 2 March 2013
• Walk #47 total distance covered: 7.39 miles
• Coast of Britain Walk Total Distance Covered: 382.85 miles
• CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO INTERACTIVE MAP!!!