Kithurst Hill

A calm, non-honeypot alternative to Sussex's overrun downland viewpoints, Kithurst Hill sits on the scarp above Storrington with a small car park right on the ridge and the South Downs Way running through it. From roughly 200m you get the full South Downs signature: a long north-facing panorama over the Weald on one side and glimpses of the sea to the south, with big skies and hedgerow-quilted farmland below. The land here is open-access CROW downland on the Norfolk Estate — crucially not National Trust — so there's no blanket TOAL ban of the kind that closes off Cissbury or Chanctonbury. Launch from the car park or the chalky track rather than the flower meadow itself: Kithurst is prized chalk grassland with rare butterflies (Duke of Burgundy among them), so minimise low disturbance over the turf in spring and summer. Airspace is comfortable for this region — Shoreham (Brighton City) FRZ is about 14km east and the excluded Goodwood FRZ roughly 22km west. It sits around 5km from the already-listed Chanctonbury Ring. Quiet on weekdays; a genuinely relaxing place to fly.