Eastbourne in October

Will it be populated or desolate at that time of year? It will partly depend on the weather, but I'd be amazed if you found yourself on your own up there. At the very least there will be people walking their dogs - complete isolation is hard to find in the crowded south east of England. If you are relying on public buses to get back to Eastbourne then you may want to check the timetables. I expect they will have switched over to their winter schedule by then.

Kevin, a twist on Meredith's question: I'm not concerned about being alone on a somewhat remote walk. But apart from taking precautions to avoid a fall or other injury, would you say it's relatively safe for a solo female walker on a trail like the one mentioned here?

Rose, I'd say it is about as safe as any public place can be. There is road access right to the cliff top, which means that it is readily accessible to casual walkers. On nice summer days it is going to be busy. In winter when a gale from the Channel is blowing the rain sideways* it may put a lot of people off, but this is Britain and generally there is no point waiting for the weather to improve, so there will be people walking even on days like that. The main question for me is not whether it's safe, but where can you get a nice cup of tea..? * actually, that sounds a lot like summer too...

I'd be OK about walking there alone, or indeed on most of the coastal paths. And as Kevin rightly says, unless the weather is really vile, there are most likely going to be other people around anyway.
Have your cell phone with you. And don't forget that the hours of daylight are getting shorter at that time of year.

Thanks, everyone, for the information. It sounds like I'll have some company but will need to check on weather and transportation. Since I've gotten such great advice here's a follow-up question: is it fairly easy to walk only a portion of the total distance or should I plan to walk it all?

Thanks, Kevin and Maggie. There are places where I live and visit in the U.S. where I used to go walking alone and now no longer feel they are safe for a couple reasons. And the proximity to a nice cup of tea is certainly a must. Someone should create a companion site to the Ordinance Survey Maps site that pairs tea proximity and/or a decent pint proximity to the various thousands of walking trails and paths throughout the UK. Maybe there is one ... The search begins... :)

is it fairly easy to walk only a portion of the total distance or should I plan to walk it all? You will need to check the timetable, but this interactive bus map will show you where the bus stops are - http://www.cartogold.co.uk/brightonhove/ scroll to the eastern end and zoom right in. Looks like it should be possible to do just part of the route, timetable permitting.

I was just on this trail this past weekend. Beachy Head was wonderful! I would say that you need to be vigilant about keeping a healthy distance from the cliff edge. There are very few places where there a fence. Beachy Head was one of the last glimpses of England for many air men during the war.

<i>Beachy Head was one of the last glimpses of England for many air men during the war.</i> While we're being depressing, it's also a notorious suicide spot: there's a phone with a hotline to the Samaritans, and a local church has people patrolling the area for people who look as if they're going to jump.