Rising to 229 metres (751 ft), it offers panoramic views over the Weald to the north, to the English Channel and the Isle of Wight to the south.

Neighbouring Beacon Hill is home to a hillfort from the Iron Age, built around 500 BC as an animal enclosure and refuge.

In addition, a cross ridge dyke was built around the same time, may have been used to control movement of people and animals along the ridgeway.

[6] Because of its elevation Beacon Hill, just to the east of Harting Down, hosted a station in the shutter telegraph chain, from 1796 to 1816, which connected the Admiralty in London to its naval ships in Portsmouth and Plymouth.

Bertrand Russell and his wife Dora founded the experimental Beacon Hill School[7] at Telegraph House, which was their residence in 1927.