Name: Club Climbing Night
Start: 2026-09-03T18:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-09-03T21:00:00+01:00
Location: Dalkey Quarry

The Poisoned Glen: 1950-1970
(by Peter Cooper, from IMC Newsletter Spring 2010)
The history of "one of the crucibles of modern Irish climbing … set in one of the finest locations in Ireland".

Recently, as part of guidebook work, I have begun researching the development of rock-climbing in The Poisoned Glen. It was one of the crucibles of modern Irish climbing, despite such an ominous name, and it is set in one of the finest locations in Ireland. One-thousand-foot faces of virgin granite may just have been the attraction to those rare early climbers. Members of the recently-formed IMC were very much at the vanguard of its development, along with a few British climbers.

The Glen is steeped in a rich history, particularly through the 1950s and 60s, that deserves to be recorded and it will be; in the next Donegal guide. The climbing connections that weave through this tale are numerous, to say the least. There is, possibly, too much information to be contained in a guidebook, hence this article and a liberal use of footnotes.

I do, however, need to make it clear that this article is a ‘work-in-progress’ and it is also an appeal for information at the same time. As write, I am awaiting replies to phone calls, e-mails and letters for assistance from some of The Glen’s early pioneers. They are still with us, thanks to God. There are others I’ve yet to contact. But, a deadline’s a deadline! I intend to provide a follow-up article, to fill in the current gaps I have and to tell The Glen’s story up to the present.

Located in Donegal’s Derryveagh Mountains, the climbing is at the head of a majestic Glen and is spread over 6 crags: Creag na mBreac, Ballaghgeeha Buttress, The Castle, Bearnas Buttress and The Far West Buttress.

Exploration of The Glen first began with Irish botanist Henry Chichester Hart ^[1], who was scrambling up and down The Glen’s gullies in the 1880s, undertaking his botanical surveys. I wonder if he would have even bumped into a shepherd out there and what would have become of him if he’d had an accident back then? Let’s not dwell! Because of his in-depth and intimate knowledge of the mountains of Ireland, his native Donegal in particular, he wrote the Irish section of Climbing in The British Isles (1895), under the editorship of ‘the-father-of-British-climbing’ Walter Parry Haskett Smith ^[2]. Not too bad for a first climbing connection.

In the 1930s the YHANI did explore climbing possibilities in Donegal, at Malin Head; but I’ve yet to find any records for The Derryveagh Mountains.

So who did climb the first rock climb in The Glen?

The earliest recorded rock climb in The Poisoned Glen, and in Donegal, was in 1950, when W. B. ‘Gaspé’ Gibson and Maurice Mc Murray ^[3] climbed Green Grass Gully on The Castle. This gully was also known by Hart as the un-climbable ‘E gully’; he’d named them gullies A-F. With its ‘particularly savage grass sections’, which were found harder than the rock sections; it gets a nominal Hard Very Difficult grade. Put yourself in their boots, happening upon the unclimbed Poisoned Glen. I certainly think I’d have climbed more than one line and I know I’d have returned for more. What were they thinking? Coincidently, in 1952 this team also put up the first routes on Lough Belshade’s crags too. And, they were also active in early Mournes exploration from the late 1940s; Mc Murray edited the 1959 Mournes guidebook.

So I think we can take 2010 as the 60th Birthday of Donegal climbing.

A regular climbing partner of Mc Murray’s, Philip Gribbon, was to get the next line in The Glen, in 1952. Jubilation was climbed by Gribbon ^[4], Joe Madill ^[5], Seán Rothery ^[6] and Doug Sloan, all IMC members; it became The Glen’s first Severe. It is also recorded that they climbed what was probably the 2nd ascent of Green Grass Gully. Again, we get a team going into this glen and recording only one line; when all is there for the taking. They certainly couldn’t be accused of being greedy.

The oracle of Irish climbing history, Joss Lynam ^[7], wrote an article for The British Mountaineering Council’s Journal on The Glen, reporting on its 1,000-foot faces. IMC members may have heard of him. I’ve yet to read it but, the article must have highlighted potential rather than merely record the two climbs that had been done up to that point.

In 1953 Yorkshireman Neville Drasdo, inspired by Joss’s article, travelled from the UK with Vivian Stevenson to The Glen. They met up with Dublin-based IMC climbers they’d previously contacted; somehow no new routes were done. Perhaps the Irish climbers diverted them with some golden Irish grain and maybe a pint, or two, of porter, stout or plain? Whilst in the Alps that year, Neville’s elder brother, Harold, met Frank Winder, Peter Kenny and Rothery ^[8]; they were very enthusiastic about Donegal’s potential.

April 1954 saw the Drasdo Brothers hitch from Yorkshire; obviously Neville had not been put off by the previous year’s experience. The Original Route (S) and Greystone Rib (S) were both climbed on The Castle. Somehow, these were the only new routes climbed in The Glen that year. So finally we had a party go in and do more than one route. Well, they had come some way.

“We fell deeply, blindly, helplessly under the spell of Donegal.”
(H. Drasdo, 1997)

I’ve had a couple of telephone conversations with Harold and his memories of his times in The Glen are remembered clearly and affectionately. Alas, cameras and film were a luxury in those days.

1954 was also the year that Winder and Paul Hill went into Lough Belshade and breached the mighty face of Belshade Buttress; quite a coup ^[9].

And, so far we are only at 1954. The following year developments really took-off. 1955 was also the year that things took off, over the hill, at Lough Barra.

In the April of ’55, Gribbon, Miss K. Claus, Doug Sloan and D. Bond climbed White Walls (VD); Creag na mBreac’s first climb. Miss Claus therefore gets the distinction of being the first lady, known, to have climbed in The Glen, but the ‘First Lady of The Glen’ is undisputedly Miss Betty Healy ^[10]. ThatAugust saw Ballaghgeeha Buttress climbed for the first time. Winder and Miss Healy climbed Route Two (S); H. Drasdo, P. McMahon & Noel Masterson claimed the fine Diagonal (VD). Extra lines were also added to the buttress by the Hiberno-Anglo team of Winder, Healy and H. Drasdo; Ulysses became the first VS grade climb in the Glen.

Drasdo, Healy and Winder were to remain friends from then on. They, and Donegal, both feature in Harold’s 1997 autobiography: The Ordinary Route. Winder eventually went on to add his name to nine new climbs in The Glen and Healy six.

The emphases of the early climbs were ‘alpinistic’ in their aims, long multi-pitched climbs finding their way to the top; often combining pitches with earlier climbs. Route-finding and abseiling skills on the big faces were to be valued. Winder recounts this in his IMC Journal article, Ulysses.

August 22nd 1956 saw H. Drasdo back, and with H. J. Thornton he climbed Golliker (VS), the West Buttress’s first route. August 26th, the Drasdo Brothers recorded The Glen’s first HVS: Berserker Wall on Ballaghgeeha Buttress. The following day they climbed the Glen’s 2nd HVS: Kon Tiki.

1956 also saw the 2nd ascent ^[11] of Spillikin Ridge, in Co. Wicklow’s Glendalough, by the Yorkshire climbers Brian Evans, Allan Austin and Miss Jennifer Ruffe. Spillikin Ridge (E2) was climbed by Winder, Kenny, Hill and Rothery. It was a landmark climb for the Ireland of 1954, showing that although a much younger sport in Ireland than the UK, the best climbers were already at the heels of the finest British climbers.

August 1957 saw the return of Allan Austin ^[12] and party, this time to visit The Poisoned Glen, on Harold Drasdo’s recommendation. Of the four routes climbed, Nightshade (HVS), jointly led by Austin and Brian Evans ^[13], stands out as one of the finest routes in Donegal ^[14]. It takes a line up the central dièdre on the Western Buttress, before tackling the roofs above. Originally graded VS, it’s now HVS, it received 8 pegs on its first ascent; far from normal practice for Messrs Evans and Austin. It should be noted that at this time Austin was on-sight-soloing fierce gritstone ‘XS’ ^[15] in Yorkshire. It remains a sought-after lead. I haven’t yet found out if it has had a free ascent; any answers out there?

Hammer and Sickle (HVS) was climbed by H. Drasdo and Geoff Sutton ^[16]. This was a good challenging line and was not to see a first free ascent until 1981, which came courtesy of Calvin Torrans. They also climbed Tarantula that year.

The CC Journal of 1958 reported that a party of climbers from Cambridge UMC had visited The Glen and did “useful work on new cliffs”. There are no routes recorded from them though, and which new cliffs these were is not known. 1958 also saw Staffordshire MC members visit and climb a new Severe on a high-up cliff, but this seems to have been lost or never properly reported.

1958 turned out to be a quiet year due to it being a very wet one. Dubliners (?) was climbed by Betty Healy, Brian McCall and Frank Winder; it was considered to be the year’s only worthwhile climb. The 1959 CC Journal noted that in ‘58 “the low tide of Irish pioneering continued”. Irish route information supplied to the CC at this time was generally provided by Seán Rothery. I wonder what was going on back then; there’s no mention of any ‘tidal variations’ in the Irish climbing scene in the IMC Journal of the time.

Ronnie Wathen ^[17] (an IMC and CC member) added a new route, Piglet’s Crack (VS) in April. One would imagine that the route would be interesting, if not challenging, as Wathen was to get one of the earliest repeats of Winder’s Spillikin Ridge; quite a status symbol for the time. The route somehow ‘slipped out’ of the 2002 Donegal guide, but it will be re-instated; as long as we can find it. I’d be grateful to hear your opinions on this and other lesser-known climbs in The Glen (and anywhere else in Donegal); feel free to use the CCC’s on-line guide’s comments section.

1959 was a good year for new-routing parties; ten routes were added, highlights being: Rafiki (VS), Fiona (VS), Flanker/Un-named Route (VS), Route Major (HVS) and Rattlesnake Rib (VD).

1959 saw Vivian Stevenson ^[18] back in Ireland with Corporal John ‘Zeke’ Deacon, Sergeant Terry Thompson and Corporal Bill Morrow; all were instructors from the Cliff Assault Wing of the British Army’s Commandos. Stevenson was now a Lieutenant in The Royal Marines. They were in Donegal to meet up with the Drasdo Brothers in The Glen; the visit is told fully in the Wearin o’ the Green article (IMC Journal 1960). With the Drasdos, Stevenson climbed the seven-pitch Linear B (VS). Finishing their trip in Glendalough the marines climbed Spearhead, with Frank Winder, and Cornish Rhapsody; each were graded ‘XS’ at the time ^[19]. The IMC journal of the time raved about these particular routes. Twenty-five years later these routes were still highly-regarded enough for inclusion in Rock Climbing in Ireland, and are still sought-after ticks over 50 years on.

For those of you fortunate enough to have climbed The Devils’ Slide on the UK’s isle of Lundy, take note that it was climbed in 1961 by Climbers’ Club Vice President, Admiral Keith Lawder, and ‘Glen pioneer’, one Zeke Deacon ^[20]. It’s a fine Glen connection and an iconic route, should you ever see it. I wonder if it matches the experience of climbing on the granite of Donegal’s isles?

Geoff Sutton was back in The Glen and climbed, with Andrew Maxfield, the line of Fiona (VS). It is quite close to his 1957 route, so it may have been a line spied for a return or perhaps a re-match? It was freed by Goulding in 1968.

Harold Drasdo and Eric Langmuir also put up the first route in Glen Veagh in the April of ‘59. The following day, fellow Glen pioneer Betty Healy was also above Lough Veagh new routing. What a feeling that must have been for them, opening-up the new-routing on all three of the Derryveagh crags. And for Drasdo these were crags in another country, though certainly not a foreign one; by that time.

Activities in the 1960s started off with the new-routing scene focused upon Lough Barra’s cliffs and there were concerted efforts to push lines up the faces at Glen Veagh, though not with the greatest of success.

A pioneer of many of the hardest Welsh routes, at this time, was Hugh Banner; he came to Donegal and climbed at Lough Barra, adding Rule Britannia, but it is not recorded whether he visited The Glen.

When was the first guidebook?

Ronnie Wathen ^[21] produced a typewritten guide to The Glen’s climbs and this formed the majority of The Glen’s text in the 1962 IMC Donegal Rock Climbs. The guide stated that it would be many years before the Donegal cliffs would be worked-out. I would add that there’s still plenty of potential out there now. Compiled by Rothery and Healy, it records 30 climbs at The Poisoned Glen. Amazing but true, it was reprinted in 1978!

The majority of the1960s recorded very few routes being done in The Glen, or indeed Donegal. Donegal was described at the time as “Ireland’s largest rock climbing area”. The Irish notes in the 1967 CC Journal noted “This area, with Ireland’s finest granite crags, has been almost entirely neglected during the past year.” The wet slog into The Glen without the certainty of bagging a brace of new routes was considered to be a major factor in Dublin’s climbers not making the long trip up to Donegal. The earliest exploration of the sea crags was starting to happen, though much of this was found to be vegetated and scrappy.

By 1968 the Donegal guide was unavailable and a typewritten guide was in production by John Forsythe and Robin Merrick, according to that December’s IMC newsletter. Dawson Stelfox’s 1985 Donegal guidebook references this guide as being produced in 1973.

Emmet Goulding and Paul McDermott were in The Glen in ‘68; they climbed Saoirse (HVS) and bagged the line many climbers had eyed, Obituary Corner. Oft-tried, it had repelled many. It is a striking line on Bearnas Buttress and bears comparism with the famed Cenotaph Corner. It would have been a fine day to have witnessed them climb it, particularly if it had already spat you out. Goulding was already active on the other Derryveagh Mountains crags; from ‘62 onwards he’d been new-routing in Lough Barra and Glen Veagh, often making the first free ascents.

In 1969 Harold Drasdo called into Dunlewy’s only bar for a drink and bumped into famous British mountaineers, Chris Bonnington and Nick Estcourt, recently returned from conquests in the Himalayas, and completely anonymous to the locals. They’d been to Donegal’s Slieve League ^[22], only to be disappointed. Having next to no information on The Glen, it was Harold who showed them the line next to Obituary Corner, one of the finer unclimbed lines remaining. Harold had provisionally named it Obituary Column. The compelling line had repelled several teams of Glen devotees for a number of years. Estcourt succeeded in leading this VS; the name stayed. And, for them, that was it. No other lines and no return for more new routes. Other fish to fry.

‘69 was also the year that Harold Drasdo climbed his last new route in the Glen, The Direct (HVS) on Bearnas Buttress; with Jim Williams. The Direct, had had the ‘doubtful distinction’ of a twelve year gestation period, being comprised of many pitches forced over many attempts, until being completed that year. Between 1954 and 1969 the Drasdo Brothers’ names were to appear on a very respectable tally of 20 first ascents here.

A new era wasn’t to begin: five years passed before another two routes were recorded. This leaves us with a clear time-break for this article.

In a 1970 Paddy O’Leary article, re-printed in an IMC newsletter, it was noted that in 1968 many routes in The Glen had received second ascents and that after a lull it was once more ‘in vogue’. Importantly for the eager climbers amongst you, reading this now, O’Leary announced that there was a new ‘status symbol’ amongst Ireland’s climbers. And that was, to have climbed The Glen’s bigger routes such as Nightshade and Slanting Grooves in a day; let’s see this resurrected now! I expect to see queuing in The Poisoned Glen this summer.

The other side of this particular story is that the focus on the bigger cliffs meant that Donegal’s smaller cliffs and isles saw no development at all. For instance, Gola, one of Ireland’s finest climbing experiences, saw no development until the mid 1990s. Imagine that. Still the upside was that there was something left for the later generations of climbers. A second ‘Donegal’ guidebook wasn’t published until 1979’s S.W. Donegal, Malinbeg, and other sea cliffs, by Jimmy Leonard.

One thing that I do find puzzling is, The Glen’s first E1. Currently I have Calvin Torrans and Clare Sheridan adding the first E2 (Rah) in 1978; they also added the first E1 (Bad Blood); but not until 1993. Their abilities are beyond question, but I would imagine they puzzled this one too. A gap of 37 years between the first HVS and the first E1? HVS’s were being climbed in The Glen in the mid-1950s; Winder, Austin and the Drasdos had already put up extremes and Miss Healy had repeated early Irish extremes; so again ability is unquestioned. Goulding was going great guns in the early 60s and Doug Scott added E2, on Sail Rock, in the late 1960s. Things don’t add up, I want answers!

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s a new-routes logbook was kept by the O’Donnell’s who lived at The Lodge, Poisoned Glen. Now however, if you want to check details of routes, add comments or submit a new route then go to the Colmcille Climbers Club website: www.pete-smith.co.uk home of the on-line Donegal climbing guide.

I hope the historical aspects of this article have been fascinating and the climbing connections engaging and that you can answer my appeal for information. Importantly, I hope it’s inspired you to visit The Poisoned Glen. The CCC’s members will happily try to meet up with you, if you send a message via the Club Secretary, Anthony Feeney, at the above web address.

I’d like to appeal to all of you for information and for any historical pictures, relating to Donegal’s pioneers and significant ascents on any of the Donegal crags.

Footnotes
- [1] Hart was a member of the Alpine Club, The Linnean Society and The Royal Irish Academy. Hart prepared reports for The Royal Irish Academy on plants: Galtee Mountains (1881), SW Donegal (1885), S Donegal (1886) and Flowering Plants of the Mountains of Ireland (1891).
- [2] W. P. Haskett Smith, pioneer of Lakeland rock and world famous, within climbing circles, for his 1886 ascent of Napes Needle; on the slopes of Great Gable. This feat is considered to be the first example of cragsmanship for its own sake and not just prep for the Alps. Haskett Smith celebrated the golden jubilee of the Nape’s Needle ascent, in 1936, by repeating the climb; at the grand age of 76. Some boy!
- [3] Both were members of the newly-formed Belfast Section of the IMC, formed March 1952.
- [4] Gribbon was a keen new router in the Mournes and edited the first Mournes guide in 1959. He was also the first Treasurer of QUBMC, which was formed in 1950.
- [5] Madhill was killed in a climbing accident that August, whilst in Glencoe. He was a founding member of the IMC’s Belfast Section.
- [6] IMC President 1970-72.
- [7] One of the founding-fathers of the IMC in 1948 and President 1982-84.
- [8] All three later served as IMC Presidents, Winder having the distinction of serving two separate Presidencies.
- [9] Belshade Buttress was almost breached in 1952 by Gibson and McMurray, but wild weather, in such a remote spot, caused them to bail-out; one pitch from the top!
- [10] Healy was that rare thing in 1950s Ireland: an Irish climber and female, who led new routes and at a standard as good as the men too! Hats off to Betty Healy.
- [11] This was reported in the IMC’s journal; a later journal records Harold Drasdo as being the first to repeat the climb.
- [12] The young Bradfordian quickly gained a formidable reputation, with on-sight-solo first ascents of High Street at Ilkley (1956) and The Shelf at Crookrise (1957); both are formidable Yorkshire Gritstone E2 climbs.
- [13] Evans was co-founder, with Writer Walt Unsworth, of the Cicerone Press, established in 1967 after frustration at the lack of exploration-guidebooks to the English Lake District.
- [14] The 1958 CC Journal reported that it was said to be the finest route in the area, possibly in all Ireland! High praise indeed.
- [15] The Extreme Severe grading category hadn’t yet been invented, XS were simply climbs known to be harder than Hard VS.
- [16] Sutton climbed with many folks and in many places but of interest is that in 1955 he was on the 1stascent of Scotland’s Old Man of Stoer, with Don Whillans and J. Barber. A nice connection with The Glen, I think.
- [17] Wathen was at Dublin’s Trinity College and went on to become its climbing club’s 1st President. He joined the IMC in the mid-1950s. He was described as an ‘Irishman by inclination’. He was also a climbing partner and friend of British climbing legend Don Whillans.
- [18] Stevenson was first known to the Drasdos from around 1950, via The Wall End Barn, a famous climbers’ dossing-place in Great Langdale, Cumbria. Handy for The Old Dungeon Gill hotel and its famous bar. In December 2009, Harold Drasdo informed me, during a phone call in December 2009, he’d just had a visit from Stevenson; 60 years on and still friends.
- [19] Healy and Winder got the coveted 2nd ascent of Cornish Rhapsody, that year.
- [20] Lundy, in The Bristol Channel, UK, was initially pioneered by the Royal Marines and they published the first rock-climbing guide to Lundy.
- [21] A very popular character, on several scenes, his 3-sided headstone, in County Wicklow, describes him as ‘Mountaineer’ on one side, ‘Poet’ on another and ‘Piper’ on the next.
- [22] Amongst Europe’s highest cliffs, but no rock worth climbing. Beautiful though.
Peter Cooper is a Lancastrian-born Yorkshireman living on Inishowen, Donegal (no, there aren’t many of them). He is President of the CCC and Editor of the Donegal guide. Contact: retepcooper-AT-yahoo-DOT-co-DOT-uk .

Main information sources: IMC Newsletters, Journals and website, CC Journals and website, The Ordinary Route by Harold Drasdo (1997), Rock Climbing in Ireland by Calvin Torrans and Dawson Stelfox (1984), Donegal guidebooks (1962, 1985 and 2002), The Villain:The life of Don Whillans by Jim Perrin (2005) and Climbing in the British Isles edited by W. P. Haskett Smith (1895).

Additional thanks for time given to: Miss Betty Healy, Harold Drasdo and, the slightly younger, Alan Tees.
Owey and the Cruit Itch

(by David Craig, July 2009)
New-routing on Owey Island, Co. Donegal

Síle and myself travelled to Owey Island for the joint IMC and Colmcille climbers meet. As Gerry described in his article it is a wonderful place to visit but the climbing requires a bit of caution. On the Saturday, as Gerry Niamh and Michael climbed on the Northern end of the island, we partook of an established route on the eastern side in a small bay bound all around by steep cliffs. The route, Call Me Ishmael, was a very pleasant crack that seems to be fairly popular, that is at least three other parties had climbed it since it was put up and possibly more, which amounts to heavy traffic in these parts!

As I sat on the belay while Síle climbed, my eyes could not help but wander over to a crack in the opposing wall. It dropped like a plum line splitting a 30m wall in two and, as we were on the only recorded route in this particular bay, seemed to be up for grabs. An hour or so later I found myself struggling in what looked like the crux of the climb, which I eventually passed to a poor rest at a small overlap and a solid wire. Above me was a stack of juggy looking flakes that appeared to offer an easy layback to the top, however in a moment of uncharacteristic intelligence I gave them a tap before I started to swing out of them. I’m still not sure exactly how these flakes are attached to the wall but thankfully they still are as I decided to swing out of the wire I had just place and deeming discretion to be the better part of valour beat a hasty retreat. Or as Síle describes it, came down gibbering with my knees knocking and my knickers ringing.

There seems to be a huge amount of unclimbed rock on Owey but as you may have guessed by now some cleaning would be required. I can think of worse ways to spend a weekend though, than cleaning and hopefully climbing a route on this very pleasant island and intend to return soon for the rematch (after softening the opponent up a bit by removing the flakes), just as soon as my knickers dry out.

On the slightly less adventurous side of things, a worthwhile alternative if you decide Owey is not your cup of tea, is Cruit island which offers some nice climbing on clean wave washed granite. The routes are short, 10 to 15 meters, but the angle gives you a bit of a workout and there is plenty of potential for new routes. Traderg bay has been developed on the Southern side by local climbers and the Northern side by our own Gerry and Liam. Details can be found on the Colmcille Climbers website in the Donegal guide book section. Sile and myself added some new routes to both areas recently details of which are below.

Albatross Sea Wall

Consolation Prize ,&nsbp;VS (4c)
David Craig and Síle Daly 25/06/09
The crack between Faithless and Kickapoo climbed using holds on the arête.

Traderg Wall area – Tráthnóna Wall

Two Ends of a Middle  HVS (5a)
David Craig and Síle Daly 24/06/09
The first crack in the bulging wall between Iron Man and Joe L’s Jaunt. There are two variations possible, the start is the crux for both. Strenuous moves gain a good ledge to the left of where the crack forks. The left fork can be climbed easily or the right with a tricky move through a bulge near the top. Most tides.

Seggílegge  VS (5a)
David Craig and Síle Daly 24/06/09
The crack to the right of Two Ends of a Middle. The start is the crux. Either make a difficult move off the ground to gain a jug or simply jump up. Climb the crack to the top making copious use of the flake crack to the left. May feel difficult to the vertically challenged! Most tides.

Trio  VS (5a)
David Craig and Síle Daly 24/06/09
A right to left diagonal of the wall. Start as for Seggílegge, gain the flake crack and move up and left into Two Ends of a Middle right hand finish. At a horizontal break, move left into the left hand finish and continue up this.

Grease Lightning  VS (4c)
David Craig and Síle Daly 24/06/09
The crack to the right of the top part of Maamturks Man, climbed from sea level. Low to mid tide.

Grease Lightning and Croithlí Dáithí

Croithlí Dáithí  E2 (5c)
David Craig and Síle Daly 24/06/09
The crack to the right of Grease Lightning. Climb strenuously to a cramped ledge up on the left. Step right and gain the good platform above. Climb the wall to the right of the corner and exit via the small chimney. Low to mid tide.

Traderg Wall area – Poll na Caoineadh, right side

Knickers  Severe
Síle Daly and David Craig 01/07/09
Start 2m left of the square cut overhang of Traderg Tantrum at a bulging flake crack. Climb the crack and follow an easy traverse line leftwards over ledges to a prominent nose. Follow a crack above the nose to the top.

Knickers and Skidmarks

Skidmarks  HVS (5a)
Síle Daly and David Craig 01/07/09
Start as for Knickers. At approximately half way across the traverse a flake crack heads up slightly rightwards to some undercut holds. Use these to gain the wall above just below right end the long overlap. Traverse easily leftwards below the overlap to re-join Knickers near the top.

The Traderg Tantrum

The Traderg Tantrum  E1 (5b)
David Craig and Síle Daly 01/07/09
Start 2m left of The Parting Glass at a corner leading up to the square cut overhang. Climb the corner, crux, then traverse below overhang. Pass the overhang on the right via some interesting flakes and make a long reach up and right to good flake holds via obvious undercut holds. Follow the flakes back slightly leftwards to an exit at a wide crack.

Traderg Wall, right hand side

Síle climbed a fantastic line here on a wall that already hosts a couple of excellent VS routes.

The Cruit Itch

The Cruit Itch  E2 (5c)
Síle Daly and David Craig 23/06/09
On Traderg wall right hand side. Start at an obvious bulging crack to the left of Strangeboat. Climb the crack to an overlap. Mantle a jug above and make a long reach up right to a hidden finger jug. Move up to a horizontal break and finish via a flake crack on the right.
Five Go to Owey Island

(by Gerry Moss, June 2009)
Travelling to a Donegal island and climbing on its perfect granite.

You should take a trip to Owey Island. Highly recommended.

Catch the boat from the little pier below the golf course at the tip of Cruit Island. As you make the ten minute crossing, listen to Dan, the ferryman (a friend of Hugh’s since their schooldays) regale you with tales of life on Owey as boy and man. The simple life: no electricity, no television, no traffic, no time constraints.

Camp by the low stone walls (home to nesting wrens) only a stone’s throw from the mooring in the little cove. Hear the seldom-heard crek-crek of the corncrake and the drumming of the snipe. Let yourself be lulled to sleep by the constant, rhythmic beat of wave on rock.

Wander along the rugged, undulating coastline and marvel at the magnificent cliffs and sea-stacks. Or ramble up through the deserted village and follow the green road to the lake. Bring your headtorch and you can explore something rare, perhaps even unique, in these islands. A lake beneath a lake. A large cavern and underground lake set in a granite formation. Scramble down an increasingly narrow and increasingly darker passage to reach the airy vault at the lake’s edge.

You could, of course, always go climbing. Start at the East side cliffs, only two minutes from the campsite. Here you will find the first climbs to be done on the island, put up by our own Dave Walsh many moons ago, on excellent granite. Or you could visit the North or West cliffs, where the routes are of a longer and more adventurous nature, requiring some experience and mountaineering skills.

Myself and Niamh travelled up early on Friday and got some routes done on Cruit, before pitching the tents. We were joined later by Michael and, later still, by Sile and Dave. We took the ferry over to the island the next morning where Alan Tees of Colmcille Climbers was waiting to welcome us. He then brought us on a tour of the island, pointing out all the different climbing areas. After lunch we split up and went climbing.

Sunday morning was a bit drizzly, so we visited the underground lake, before taking down the tents and heading back to the mainland.

All in all, a great experience.

Talk to Dan, the ferryman, 086 601 3893. You’ll be glad you called.
Glen Head to Slievetooey

(by Uinseann Mac Eoin, from Irish Mountaineering 1978)
A cliff walk in Co. Donegal.

A west wind lashes the waves against the black cliffs of Glen Head, 2 miles NW of Glencolmkille, making its dark profile bleak and lowering. The head itself falls away from the crest of the heathery moorland to the sea making it difficult to appreciate the shelving cliffs at this point. A square tower dominates the scene. You reach it from the village by a small road that heads due north up the hillside. At a point where the tar ends, one heads up upon the hill to the 916 mark, then heads west across the heather to the tower. The tower is at a lower level around 600 feet. From there the sharp hog backed profile of the Sturrall (derives from the Irish for tall, bold, beautiful) comes into sight. It is of compelling interest.

A mixture of pre Cambrian quartz and schist, it drops shear on its south west side, while shelving steeply on its. north east. The approach is upon sheep tracks on that side. One drops down towards it quickly, and then gingerly, if the wind is strong, down upon one of these tracks at the neck of the isthmus. One skylines upon grass for a piece, while ahead the spine rises steeply to a thin line of rocks. These are the arete of the Sturrall, a jumble of friable rocks, difficult to move upon. I do not know anyone that has skylined the arete from end to end, though it is possible to climb up to points upon it.

If one continues on the NE side under the shadow of these rocks and pinnacles, one will continue a slow diagonal descent towards the further end of it, where it is possible to scramble back up again on grass and rock to a gap in the arete. But move carefully, because one is upon a very steep grass slope that ends eventually in cliffs. Looking over through the gap, back towards the tower, is a striking view. The sea is churning in upon cliffs 600 feet, below. There are arches and caves, and a stoney cove, inaccessible except from a boat. Sea birds squawk and wheel. Once, on a steep ledge of heather, I saw two foxes, for of course the terraces could be reached by the wily animals. How safe they were there.

On another occasion, a bright sunny afternoon in autumn, I crawled out along it with Pat McMahon. We reached as far as we could go, a short distance beyond the see over gap. Pat wanted to come back along the arete. It is possible to climb up and proceed towards the land again from the gap, though one needs to be awfully careful. The real difficulty is alighting down again from it at the landward end. I retraced my steps on the sheep track until I reached the col or isthmus linking it to the mainland. I waited a long time, or what seemed to be a long time, for Pat to appear. While I waited I watched a small dark cloud in the blue sky that drifted in slowly from the NW. Suddenly Pat appeared upon the flat slab of rock like a table a hundred and fifty yards away from me, and fifty feet or so above me. He was triumphant. He had got this far. Standing upon the flat rock, 600 feet over the sea on his right hand and with a fall almost as steep on his left, he stood upon the table size platform raising five fingers in triumph. It was at that moment that the heavens struck. From the cloud come one single lightning flash that seemed to strike for and sear the very rock on which he stood. He gave a faint wail and disappeared from view. I hoped he had not fallen or been killed by the flash. Half an hour later I saw him trail slowly back upon the sheep track, disconsolate and somewhat frightened. The lightning had indeed been close. So close that he was knocked down by it; the tips of all his fingers had gone white. I was relieved though to have him back again.

On, north east of the Sturrall, is some of the finest cliff walking in Ireland, more interesting and broken than Moher in Clare, less regular than the impressive line stretching from Benwee Head in Mayo eastwards to Belderg, and longer and higher, than the three miles of cliff forming a crescent around Fair Head. On they go, past the hamlet of Port, (most isolated homestead in Ireland?), past Toralaydan Island, Tormore and Puliska until one reaches the narrow crest of Slievetooey, most isolated mountain in Ireland?). There is not a let up in the cliff scenery except as one rolls down to sea level at Port. A never ending cavalcade of cliffs, tors, inaccessible islands, shelving land masses and tortured geology lie upon ones left.

One cannot make haste here. One has to hug the cliff path, follow its every quirk, sit down frequently and stare; explore with ones eye. One may go from Glencolmkille, traverse the Sturrall and reach Port. But it will be a good walker who can go on past and take in Slievetooey on the same day. I rate it as one of the most striking cliff walks anywhere.

The Poisoned Glen: 1950-1970

So who did climb the first rock climb in The Glen?

When was the first guidebook?

Footnotes

Owey and the Cruit Itch

Albatross Sea Wall

Traderg Wall area – Tráthnóna Wall

Traderg Wall area – Poll na Caoineadh, right side

Traderg Wall, right hand side

Five Go to Owey Island

Glen Head to Slievetooey