East Sussex, with its status as a non-metropolitan county, has always attracted those looking for a quiet place to call home. Now, with huge numbers of people looking to get away from their busy lives in the cities and make a home for themselves in the country, it is little wonder that for new homes, East Sussex is one of the most desirable counties in the land.

One of the biggest attractions to East Sussex is the long walking routes it offers to lovers of the great outdoors. Long walks in East Sussex, however, are not just a half an hour trek across some fields but instead some rigorous, marathon-esque trails across the county.

Proof of the rigour of walks such as these lies with the 1066 Country Walk, being one of the most popular and widely known walks through East Sussex yet coming in at a total length of 50 km (31 miles).

As the name suggests, the walk commemorates the Battle of Hastings, taking in Pevensey where the Normans landed as well as the battle site (in the town, Battle), ending at the East Sussex town of Rye, where the path joins onto the much larger South Downs Way national trail.

At the other end of the spectrum is the Sussex Border Path, which comes in at an eye watering 256 kilometres (159 miles).

Starting at Thorney Island near Chichester, the path finds its way through West Sussex and into Rye, the end point for the 1066 Country Walk too. Despite the walk taking in important points in the Saxon history of the area, the walking route is relatively new, first being devised in 1983 by Ben Perkins and Aeneas Mackintosh.

The route follows the Sussex border as closely as it can, what with as it having one of the longest inland borders in the country. There are a few deviations, however, where more scenic routes could be taken just off the county border.

Of course, long walks aren’t for everyone. Many people looking to move to a house in East Sussex may be doing so to get away from the strenuousness that can be experienced living in an urban area. But what better ways are there of seeing a county than on foot through its paths?