Barrack Hall Park

The walk into Barrack Hall Park from Bexhill-on-Sea takes you through some proper Sussex woodland, and it's worth the trek. This nature reserve feels genuinely wild compared to the manicured seafront you've just left - dense thickets of trees, open glades, and the kind of undergrowth that suggests things are living their own lives here without much interference.

What you're actually looking at is a mix of woodland and grassland that's been allowed to do its own thing, and it works. Bird watchers will have a field day, particularly if you time it right during migration season. The paths aren't dramatic - no sudden vistas or Instagram moments - but that's rather the point. You move slowly, you notice things. Butterflies, wildflowers in summer, the occasional deer if you're lucky and quiet enough.

It's best suited to patient walkers and serious nature types rather than families after a day out. Kids will get bored after an hour unless you make a game of spotting wildlife. Allow two to three hours if you're exploring properly, longer if you're photographing anything that moves.

Stay nearby at Normans Bay Camping and Caravanning Club Site, just over four miles away, and use Barrack Hall as your morning walk before heading to the beaches. The reserve sits perfectly between proper countryside and the seaside - exactly what Sussex camping should feel like.