A disused 1830s lighthouse on the cliffs above Beachy Head, famously jacked up and shifted inland in 1999 as the chalk eroded
Up on the chalk above Beachy Head stands a squat granite lighthouse that no longer works. Belle Tout was built in the 1830s to warn ships off the cliffs of the South Downs coast, but the lamp sat so high that sea fog and low cloud often hid the beam, so Trinity House, who run the lighthouses of England and Wales, replaced it in 1902 with Beachy Head Lighthouse down at the water’s edge. As the chalk crumbled and the tower crept towards the drop, engineers jacked the whole building up and slid it about 17 metres back from the edge in 1999. Belle Tout is now a bed and breakfast, so there’s no going inside, but the clifftop walk to it from Birling Gap along the South Downs Way is one of the finest on the south coast.
