Northiam 8.5km Trail

Race Description

Northiam's race is as much a tour of local history as it is a trail run. The route runs directly past the grounds of Great Dixter, one of the great Arts and Crafts gardens of England and a working example of Edwin Lutyens' architecture, before picking up the East Sussex Border Path towards the village of Ewhurst.

From there it's a genuine mix of terrain — fields, woodland, and the kind of undulating country lanes this corner of the High Weald is known for — adding up to 150m of climbing across 8.5km, the most of any of these five courses.

True to form for the series, it saves its sting for the finish: the course climbs back into the village to end at Northiam recreation ground, meaning there's no coasting in over the line here either. At 62% trail it's slightly more road-and-lane than some of the others, but the payoff is the Great Dixter backdrop early on, which is hard to match anywhere else on the 1066 calendar.