BEACHY HEAD, a promontory on the coast of Sussex, between Hastings and Brighton, near which the French defeated the English and Dutch fleet in 1690. It consists of a perpendicular chalk cliff 530 feet high. A lighthouse, with a revolving light 285 feet above high-water mark, was erected in 1828 on the second cliff to the westward, in long. 0° 1Έ., lat. 50° 44' N.