Hidden in a quiet Sussex backwater, this eminently appealing brick-and-flint pub is the perfect ramblers’ hole-up, with some of best walking and cycling in southern England close by. After trudging
the South Downs, hordes of thirty folk pile into the rustic, 500-year-old Ram to sup pints of Harvey’s Sussex Bitter (brewed in nearby Lewes) and gorge on generous deli-style sharing boards. The
kitchen buys locally, and the full menu promises the likes of braised Sussex pork cheek with roast baby onions, cauliflower purée and sage jus, braised lamb shank with parsley mash or Shoreham cod
fillet with chilli, orange, chorizo and steamed palourde clams. To finish, try a baked apple with blackberry compote and Calvados anglaise. Log fires warm the cockles in winter, while the splendid
flint-walled garden and orchard is a summertime idyll. Four boutique bedrooms too.