Cissbury Ring Goes Digital

Cissbury Ring is one of the National Trust’s jewels in the South Downs. From the top on a clear day, you can see forever, with views across to the chalk cliffs beyond Brighton or to those of the Isle of Wight. It is the location and the views that have drawn people to this site for generations. Cissbury Ring is most recognisable as a large Iron Age hillfort dating 450 BC. However, over 6,000 years of human activity can also be explored across the site from our earliest industrial activity in form of Neolithic flint mines through to more recent World War II military activity. Visible earthworks and less visible buried features combine to reveal the changing function and fortune of one hilltop through time.

It’s well worth a walking visit, but without a physical guide would you uncover all its secrets and stories?

Now you can thanks to our partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority providing you with experts in your pocket. 10 short films cover a series of themes linked to the archaeology of the site, the characters who worked here and the landscape management. These stories are easily accessed by scanning the quick response (QR) code embedded on plaques installed around the site on existing landscape ‘furniture’ (such as finger posts, fences and benches).

There is no set route to find them all as we invite you to explore the site at your leisure to uncover and collect the stories of Cissbury. If you can't access the site, you can still enjoy the trail and content virtually via the National Trust’s London & South East YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4rckWL8zQEbOzSNxXEwg1oICc0UcTXm&si=vR3eby6Dr2omYRX5