Wildlife of Eastbourne’s Chalk Grasslands: Orchids & Butterflies

Europe’s rainforest on Eastbourne’s doorstep

Chalk grassland — or chalk downland — is one of the most biodiverse habitats in Western Europe, and one of the most threatened. The magic lies in the ground itself. The soil over the chalk is so thin it is barely there, and the porous rock beneath drains rainwater and nutrients straight away, leaving a shallow, dry, lime-rich earth. Most plants would struggle, but a specialist community of low-growing wildflowers has adapted to thrive in exactly these harsh conditions.

The result is astonishing abundance. A single square metre of good downland turf can hold as many as 40 different flowering plants — more than any other habitat in Britain — packed together in a delicate, jewel-like balance. It is this profusion that earns chalk grassland its “rainforest of Europe” nickname, and its status as a habitat of international conservation importance. And it all sits directly on the same white chalk that forms Beachy Head, just a short walk from Eastbourne’s streets.

A habitat made by sheep

Here is the surprise: this “natural” wonder is not natural at all. Chalk grassland exists only because of centuries of grazing. For hundreds of years, sheep and rabbits cropped the downs above Eastbourne to a short, springy sward, nibbling back every plant before any single species could grow tall and shade out its neighbours. That constant trimming is what allows dozens of delicate flowers to coexist in the same tiny patch.

When the grazing stops, the magic unravels fast. Coarse grasses and scrub — hawthorn, blackthorn, gorse — quickly move in and smother the flowers. Across the 20th century, as old farming patterns changed and downland was ploughed or abandoned, this precious habitat declined by more than 90%. What survives above Eastbourne today is kept alive by careful conservation grazing, with flocks of sheep and cattle deliberately put out to do the job their ancestors did for centuries.

The flowers of the downs

From late spring into high summer, the downs above Eastbourne come alive with colour. Wild thyme and marjoram scent the air, while horseshoe vetch and bird’s-foot trefoil splash the turf yellow, mingling with the pinks and purples of small scabious, knapweed and common rock-rose. Among them grow true rarities — chalk milkwort, bastard toadflax and the deep-blue spikes of the round-headed rampion.

Then there are the orchids. The downs support pyramidal, common spotted and fragrant orchids, and — for the sharp-eyed — the extraordinary bee orchid, whose flower mimics a female bee so convincingly that male bees try to mate with it, unwittingly carrying off its pollen in the process. It is one of nature’s cleverest tricks, playing out quietly on the hills above the town.

A cloud of butterflies

Where there are chalk-grassland flowers, there are butterflies — and Eastbourne’s downs are among the best places in the country to see them. Remarkably, around 35 of Britain’s 56 butterfly species can be found on chalk grassland. On a warm summer’s day the turf shimmers with the electric blue of the Adonis Blue and Chalkhill Blue, the flickering Common Blue, the chequered Marbled White, and fast-flying skippers darting low over the flowers.

Many of these butterflies are utterly dependent on the habitat: the caterpillars of the Adonis and Chalkhill Blues, for instance, feed only on horseshoe vetch, a plant that grows almost nowhere else. Their fortunes rise and fall with the grassland’s health — which is why the return of the once-nearly-extinct silver-spotted skipper to the South Downs, following years of grazing and scrub-clearance work, has been celebrated as a real conservation triumph. Overhead, meanwhile, skylarks pour out their song, and kestrels and peregrine falcons patrol the cliffs of Beachy Head.

Eastbourne’s downland, and how to enjoy it

Eastbourne is unusually lucky. Much of the downland on its doorstep — including Beachy Head and Belle Tout — forms the Eastbourne Downland Estate, owned not by a private landlord but by the people of Eastbourne themselves, through the borough council. Alongside working farmland, it includes around 1,200 acres of open-access land, and its chalk grassland is actively managed for wildlife with grazing sheep and cattle.

You can walk straight up into it. The grassland above Willingdon around Butts Brow, the slopes of Beachy Head, and the paths climbing onto the Downs from town all lead into this living habitat. Late spring and summer are the best times, when the flowers are out and the butterflies are on the wing — and it is all free, and right on the doorstep.

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