Fieldtrip: Thursday 8th January

The 2026 QRA ADM fieldtrip will be to Birling Gap and Black Rock on the Sussex coast.

Fieldtrip leaders: Professor Julian Murton (University of Sussex) and Dr Matt Pope (UCL)

The Sussex coast exposes some excellent stratigraphic sections through chalk and superficial deposits that record periglacial and sea-level features from the Middle and Late Pleistocene. The field trip will examine some of these features at two important locations, Birling Gap and Black Rock. Birling Gap provides the finest vertical cross section of a dry chalkland valley in southern England, exposing frost-brecciated chalk covered by periglacial colluvium and fluvial deposits. These deposits preserve an important palaeoenvironmental record, including Pleistocene megafauna, and stone artefacts recording the activities of early human population. Nearby are the hanging valleys of the Seven Sisters. Black Rock exposes a raised-beach deposit dated to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7a/7.1 (c. 200–191 ka) at the foot of a buried sea cliff and overlain by periglacial head deposits. Black Rocks marks the eastern margin of the Sussex–Hampshire Coastal Plain that stretches from Brighton westward ~80 km to Portsmouth and comprises a staircase of raised beaches from MIS 13 to 5e.

Cost: £30 (this is in addition to the registration fee).

If you would like to attend the QRA 2026 ADM fieldtrip please tick the field trip box at registration here.

08:45 – Meet outside the front of the Cockcroft Building, University of Brighton, Moulsecoomb, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4GJ.

09:00 – Coach departs from outside the front of the Cockcroft Building.

09:40 – Arrive Birling Gap. Coach drop-off outside National Trust Car Park. High tide is at 14:36 (Newhaven), so we will visit Birling Gap first. We will descend the steps to the beach and walk several hundred metres westwards across the gravel beach and/or chalk shore platform to beneath the interfluve at Went Hill, before retracing our steps to the dry valley at Birling Gap. The coach will park nearby and you can leave luggage on the coach if you wish. There will be a toilet available on the coach and toilets at Birling Gap National Trust.

12:00 – Arrive Smuggler’s Rest country pub, Peacehaven, for lunch. 

13:30 – Depart Smuggler’s Rest by coach.

14:00 – Arrive Black Rock, Brighton Marina. The coach will drop us on The Broadwalk and park in the Marina; you can leave luggage on the coach if you wish. We will walk from The Broadwalk a few hundred metres to Undercliff Walk. There will be a toilet available on the coach and toilets at Asda Superstore or other commercial outlets.

15:30 – Depart The Broadwalk by coach.

15:40 – Approximate time of return to Cockcroft Building. This marks the end of the field trip and the end of the 2026 ADM.

• Attendees should bring a packed lunch (if they do not wish to buy lunch at the Smuggler’s Rest) and a hard hat if they want to look at the cliff face closely.

• Attendees should dress for cold weather and bring waterproofs, sturdy walking shoes/boots and warm clothes. Note the chalk shore platform can be slippery and the gravel beach at Birling Gap is uneven – shoes/boots with grip and ankle support are advised.

• Brighton staff will bring first aid boxes and can provide hard hats and high-vis jackets for those who need them.

• A copy of the risk assessment for this field trip can be found here (coming soon!). 

If you have any questions about the field trip, please contact QRA2026@brighton.ac.uk.