🥾 Walking route
A Roman ramble to Gumber Farm, Slindon Estate
West Sussex
- 📏 4.7 km · 2.9 mi
- ⛰ +94 m
- ⏱ 1 hr 15 min
- 🐕 On lead
Walk stats
- Distance4.7 km · 2.9 mi
- Elevation+94 m
- Duration1 hr 15 min
- DifficultyEasy
- Route typeLinear
- TerrainWoodland tracks and downland paths, one steady climb
- Best seasonLate spring to early autumn
- DogsDog friendly on leads near livestock
About this walk
This gentle linear ramble on the Slindon Estate follows a stretch of Stane Street, the old Roman road that once ran arrow-straight from Chichester to London. Setting out from Bignor at the foot of the South Downs, the route climbs steadily onto the wooded ridge, where the raised Roman agger is still clearly traceable underfoot.
The path threads through beech hangers and open downland typical of this quiet corner of West Sussex, with long views opening south towards the coastal plain. Walkers with time to spare can detour to the nearby Neolithic Camp, a reminder that people were shaping this landscape long before the legions arrived. A waypoint associated with the writer Hilaire Belloc, a great champion of Sussex, marks the ridge before the track drops gently towards Gumber and on to Slindon village.
At just under 5 km with modest ascent, it is an easy half-morning outing that packs in Roman engineering, ancient earthworks and classic downland scenery, finishing in the flint-built estate village of Slindon.
Route map
Route line drawn from OpenStreetMap footpath data. Numbered markers are waypoints on the route; amber star markers are points of interest a short detour away.
Waypoints along the route
4 waypoints along the way
- 1
Start: Bignor
- Start
The start of the route.
- 2
Stane Street
- 3
Hilaire Belloc
- 4
Finish: Slindon
- Finish
The end of the route.
Worth a short detour
Points of interest just off the route, look for the amber markers on the map.
Neolithic Camp
~371 m off the route
Route & waypoint data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).