Ditchling Common Country Park Nature Trail

A short waymarked loop of about a mile from the car park on Folders Lane East: along the bank of the pond, through the woods and the coppice, round the top of the big field and back past the picnic tables. Best between March and September, the leaflet says, with bluebells and wood anemones in spring that can turn the whole field purple.

The ground

Short and gentle: a path along the pond's bank, woods, a coppice and the open field, through kissing gates and over two bridges. Waymarked by posts with Dizzy the Ditchling Dragonfly on them. 'Stay on marked paths,' the council asks: the common is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Livestock

'This large field is grazed by cattle through the summer,' says the leaflet; the council's page says cattle graze the fenced areas from spring to autumn.

The line on the map

Drawn through the habitats the leaflet names, in its order; the waymark posts themselves aren't mapped, so the line is the nearest mapped path.