Ashdown Forest – Garden of Eden waterfall from Ellison’s Pond

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About
Gallery
Parking
Poo bins?
Self-guided walk

About

The Ashdown Forest is in East Sussex (although parts of it are not far from the Surrey border) and it has some absolutely stunning locations to enjoy (see also this walk at Chelwood Vachery and this route from Box car park which also takes in the Garden of Eden waterfall but via the Friends’ Clump and Nutley Windmill).

Despite its name, the Ashdown Forest is chiefly made up of lowland heath, with woodland comprising less than 40 per cent of its total area – however, it was originally a deer hunting forest in Norman times.

Ellison’s Pond is one of the 126 ponds dotted around the forest. These are home to a variety of wildlife, including the Great Crested Newt. Apparently around half of Britain’s 46 species of damselfly and dragonfly have been recorded in the forest.

The Garden of Eden waterfall is tucked away, just off one of the main rides and formed by a stream cascading down over some rocks. Manage your expectations, you’re not in the Yorkshire Dales or the Peak District, but it’s a pretty little spot all the same.

Gallery: What’s it like here?

Poo bins?

None, please take waste home.

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Take the path from back of the car park between the two parts of the pond.

Immediately after the pond, turn left and walk down this wide slightly-descending path lined by gorse. The clump of trees you see in the distance to the left is The Friends’ Clump. Clumps of Scots pines were first ordered to be planted in the Ashdown Forest in 1825 by Elizabeth, Countess de la Warr, whose descendants owned the area until 1988. At the time, locals were outraged by these “interlopers” and many of the trees were cut down! In 1973, The Friends of Ashdown Forest decided to commemorate the “Year of the Tree” by planting the Friends’ Clump.

The gorse will eventually thin out and you’ll be surrounded by grass and scrub but there is one sizeable gorse bush on your right where a path heads off up the hill – take this. The path, I mean; leave the gorse bush there! (ha ha ha etc.)

This ascending path is lined on the left by heather and then more gorse. Parts of this bit can be pretty muddy in the winter months and you may have to navigate some small ghyll streams. These are common across the forest because of its poorly-drained soils and its relatively high altitude (some 200m above sea level) causing high annual (conventional) rainfall. Thank you for coming to my GCSE geography lesson. For most of the year, there is at least one little pool on the right.

Follow the path all the way to a really wide grass path cutting across your way and turn left. Take this down the slope, which does get fairly steep, and then turn right at the next big wide grassy path that cuts across the way. You can see a hill ahead…and you’ll shortly be going up it!

Sorry about that – but let me make it up to you ahead of time.

Before you get to the hill, you’ll come to a bridge. This is Nobby’s Bridge. Google hasn’t thrown up any information about Albert “Nobby” Clarke or Mary Ellen Clarke, who I assume was his wife. They clearly both lived long lives and I hope they were very happy. I imagine they loved it here and I imagine that is why their family donated the bridge.

Anyway, immediately before (or immediately after, it doesn’t really matter) the bridge, turn left onto one of the small paths. Either of these will take you to the Garden of Eden waterfall.

If you were expecting Niagara Falls, I am sorry that it’s not quite that impressive, but it is beautiful and you can paddle through it. This is a lovely little spot for a bit-of-a-sit or a picnic if you’re lucky enough to be here on a quiet day without loads of people coming by (having had the same ”oooh, let’s find the Eden waterfall” idea as you!)

I brought Rena here on the day I collected her ashes from Chestnut Lodge and we sat a little while just enjoying the burbling of the water over the rocks.

Jett paid no such respect and just ran around covered in mud (and probably poo) from rolling around on the grass earlier. She was happy and that’s what mattered.

When you’re done, head from Nobby’s Bridge up the slope. It’s long and, yes, it’s pretty steep. There is an absence of gorse as you go up this hill. When you’re nearly at the top, turn right down a little path tucked behind the first gorse bush you come to. Watch your step as it’s really craggy and rocky and uneven. The path is narrow and winds through gorse. When you emerge from the gorse bushes to open scrub and heather and long grass, you’ll be at a fork, take the right hand path.

At the next fork, take the left-hand option. Go either side of the gorse bush in the middle of the path and at the next fork, take the lower one on the right. Both head to the same path so it doesn’t matter too much if you get the wrong one but this path is a gentler gradient. This whole area is very open – and that means very blowy on windy days (quite exhilarating!) and there’s no respite from the sun in the summer so go early before it gets too hot for dogs. You’ll head through another section of gorse bushes. Keep right and you’ll emerge out onto a grassy area by a little pool, which makes for a welcome slurp for dogs.

The path is then open for a little bit before – surprise surprise – it goes back into gorse. Then it brings you up to one of the big, wide main rides where you continue onwards. Stay on this path and see up ahead another big slope? Yes, sorry, you’re going up this too.

At the top, you’ll pass a clump of trees on the left at Camp Hill – there are some benches here too if you want to stop to get your breath back and enjoy the views.

Continue on your way with the trees on the left, ignoring the wide path down to the right. As you walk ahead now, look ahead and slightly to the right and you’ll see Friends’ Clump again.

Ignore all paths left and right now, just keep straight and this path brings you back to Ellison’s Pond.