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

Wicklow Ways

(by John Duignan, May 2011)
A Wicklow climbing diary.

Joe on pitch 1, Curved Air, Luggala

Against an azure sky, the peregrine silently circled Joe (Reville) on the descent to Luggala. A good omen. We chose the two-star VS route Curved Air that rises above Conifer Terrace. The top ramp pitch is as exciting a climb as there is at this level on the crag as it curves and rises improbably. A quick romp up Pine Tree Butress ends a great day’s climbing.

End of day: Joe on Pine Tree Buttress

Days later, Seán (Barrett) is back in Glendaloch after a few months abroad. To celebrate we choose a line that is rarely dry, Lag Mara. It winds its way up the crag beside the waterfall alongside Forest Rhapsody. Our line is governed by what is dry rather than the guidebook and we take an arete parallel to the guidebook description. We are rewarded with some fine granite, stunning views and interesting rock challenges. Chockstones and one ancient tape show that early climbers knew this line. It is well worth an outing after a dry spell.

Seán on third pitch, Lag Mara

Luggala draws us back for more before the midgie season starts. Barry (Denton)is puzzled by the guidebook description of the three-star VS route we plan; how would any of us unravel the puzzles of the lines on this crag without Gerry Moss’s introduction? Today the delicate beginning moves of All Along the Watchtower are bone-dry. We split the first pitch in two as it winds first to the right, then left and back again. The second pitch – a descent backwards down a ramp with the rock wall trying to push you off and a gap to step over at bottom of the ramp – is a very memorable passage. I lose concentration as I climb the wall above the ramp and find myself flying backwards through the air to swing to and fro fifteen feet below the ramp. Barry looks relieved as I cackle manically, coming back through the gap in the ramp. "The Flying Doctor service", I joke – very relieved at getting away with a few scratches. The final pitch is equally delightful clean granite. The views from the Woody Wall of the lake below and the peregrines in flight are beautiful.

Barry backs down the ramp on All Along the Watchtower

Thanks Joe, Barry and Séan for these great days. We are so fortunate to have these gems at our doorstep and great rope mates in the club to share them. If the recession is affecting your chance of a trip away this year, there is great granite a short hop down the road.
Free as a bird in Glendalough

(by John Duignan, April 2011)
A great day’s climbing in Wicklow.

The approach to the Main Face is carpeted with alpine flowers – dog violet and saxifrage are easy to name; others I can’t recognise. A lizard scampers underfoot; a family of goats with a magnificent elder puck goat pass above us. The forecast for bad weather must be happening in a different part of Wicklow; the crag never looked better.

Hugh (Reynolds) hums as he gears up for his first day outdoor climbing this year. Soon he is cruising Scimitar Crack – an onsight HVS lead, laybacking and bridging well.

Scimitar Crack – Hugh laybacking the crux

Cracks on the Garden of Eden is next. Hugh chooses the bouldering moves of the HVS variant. Inspired, I find the layback moves on the pitch above fantastic – VS climbing at its Glendalough best.

Cracks on the Garden of Eden – upper pitch

A sunsoaked lunch at the ledge below the Prelude ramp allows us watch a young lass making her first ascent of Prelude-Nightmare. I plead with her to shed the massive unneeded seagull-basher cam – she laughs back that it is a lucky piece. Shut up and admire her catlike grace.

A day like this calls for something special. I have been repulsed by the Upper Cliffs too often – the weather wrong; conditions poor; too wet underfoot. Hey, I have a whole bag full of excuses. Truth is, they scare me as much as they fascinate me. One anonymous climber (hello Terry!) recalls the "trumpets of angels calling" while climbing Cornish Rhapsody. Another, Helen, recalls getting her knee stuck in Cuchulainn Groove.

Despite the heat, when we scramble up, Cuchullain Groove, true to its reputation, is wet along its length and has a small pool at its bottom.

We choose Freebird, a HVS climb I often admire from the valley below. The moves on the first pitch are delicate and in places unlikely; Hugh thoughtfully works the pitch. Before long he is grinning down from a hanging belay which makes the best of the poor anchors available.

Hugh cruises the first pitch of Freebird

I wonder why the second pitch looks so steep when it appears so laid back from below? The climb is a stunning Yosemite-like splitter crack; it is highly vegetated after the Winter. I garden as I go but recall Gerry Moss’s advice to bring an ice axe for this; my puny nut key is not up to the job. My mood swings widly from joy to fear when the crack is very overgrown. The upper third holds are juggy and the pressure is off.

Freebird second pitch

The guidebook suggests abseiling from tat at the top of the second pitch. Would trad climbers object to bolts and chain at the top of this pitch? Surely it would be safer and wouldn’t take from the joy of the climb. I add a new sling to the tat above.

Freebird on the Upper Cliffs proved well worth the visit; don’t forget the ice axe to do your bit gardening! I have never seen conditions better there than they are – I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
The Boys of Wexford

(by Gerry Moss, April 2011)
A springtime visit to the Hook Head sea-crag.

We are the boys of Wexford, who fought with heart and hand,
To break in twain the savage chain that girths our native land.

More power to them. And didn’t they do well today to draw with All Ireland hurling champions, Tipperary.

Sweet-talked Willie and Joe down to Wexford’s Hook Head on Saturday, with promises of low tides, slack winds and dry, steep rock. We scored on all three points.

I have climbed there a few times before, but never wrote any of the routes up, so this area of bedded limestone is a go as you please, make your own selection, do your own thing, sort of place.

Plenty of steep stuff, most of it coming with good hand and foot holds. Friends large and small are useful in the horizontal bedding cracks. Sometimes you have overhangs at the bottom, and sometimes they come at the top.

Hook Head boasts the oldest operational lighthouse in the world (and I should know, me Da built it, and I helped by carrying the bricks). The tip of the peninsula is a bright and airy spot, with views across to Dunmore East on the Waterford coast and the Comeragh mountains beyond. Access to the climbs is via a stroll along a stretch of The Wexford Way.

All-in-all a good day out.
Magical Mystery Tour

(by Gerry Moss, November 2010 to January 2011)
New-routing at a secret crag somewhere in Ireland.

Episode 1

The Government ministers aren’t the only ones running around like headless chickens. Half the time I don’t know whether I’m coming or going, either. Like last Saturday, for instance. Perhaps because it was still dark when we started out, or perhaps it was because Margaret drives so fast that everything goes by in a blur. Then again, it may have something to do with the fact that I get so comfortable that I keep nodding off. Joe was no use, at all, at all, – slept the whole way.

Anyhow, we arrived at this smashing crag, but I don’t know where it is, so I can’t give you any reliable information on its location. We did get chatting to a couple out for a stroll in the hills, and they had lovely soft southern accents, if that’s any help. But no, they did point out that they were blow-ins, so we’re back to square one. All I can tell you is that there was lots of unsullied rock, and we got busy and sullied some of it.

Four routes so far – 3 at VS and one at Severe, and each of us got to put up a route on good, solid, steep rock, with small, sharp holds, well protected where it is needed. I’d give you more details only I can’t find my notes. I’ll take more pictures the next time, if we can find our way back to it, because there is lots still to be done.

I wish I could be more specific – honestly. It’s no shame to be growing old, but it does have its drawbacks.

Episode 2

Tricky old weather on Saturday. Fine and dry, but as temperatures hovered around the four to five mark, it was a bit on the cold side for trad rock. Unless, of course, you knew of a sheltered, south-facing, sun-catching crag. No problem!

So, just as dawn was breaking, Margaret, Joe and myself set off, driving north (or was it south) along frost-fringed roads, heading for our secret crag in County Watway.

We were greeted with blue skies, sun-kissed rock and temperatures bordering on the balmy. Way to go!

As we sat on top, there were several deer (or were they extra-large rabbits) foraging in the woods below the crag, while we gazed out over low, and not so low, rolling hills, and a large lake (or was it the sea) glistening in the background/foreground.

This suntrap is a larger, steeper, more in-your-face, version of Barnbawn, with sound rock and good friction. The climbing is often steep and technical, with small fingerholds, calling for neat footwork and a good eye for gear placements. So far we have a batch of solid VS routes and a couple of easier ones and, as yet, we are only nibbling at the fringes.

This is Magaret, enjoying new-routing in fine conditions.

All this, and only an hour from Dublin. No, wait. I’m forgetting that I dozed off for an hour. Or was it more? Or less? Hard to tell. Trouble is, I cant see my watch without my glasses, which I always leave at home. Anyhow, I cant get the hang of these digital watches – I’m still trying to put mine an hour forward for Wintertime. Or should that be an hour back? Who cares.

Never mind. Full details of this fine crag will be available for your enjoyment shortly.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life…. Ah, yes. Clint Eastwood in The Sound of Music. You can’t beat the classic movies. Or was that John Wayne in Mary Poppins?

Whatever.

Here’s looking at you, Sid.

Episode 3

We were back there again this Saturday, once more in glorious sunshine.

It was here the poet had in mind when he wrote:

No cold wind blows there, No biting snow’s there,
Tis a hidden haven for boats and men,
There’s buttery cream there and honey-bees teem there,
All around Mavourneen’s Glen.

On a busy day we each got to add a new route to the collection.

I would really like to tell you more, but my two climbing partners have threatened me with all kinds of violence if I say a word. It’s no shame being old and feeble, but it does have its drawbacks. However, I’ve decided to be brave and give you a clue. Study the following carefully:
The Artful Dodgers

(by Gerry Moss, November 2010)
"The east coast of Cork was one area where dry weather and sunshine was promised, so the Artful Dodgers decided to take advantage of this and pay a return visit to Knockadoon."

I’m not a man for making lists myself, but if I did, it would be a list of crags to suss out, rather than individual climbs. Cherrypicking routes overlooks the fact that most crags have much more to offer than just one or two lines and besides, you will get much more pleasure from making your own selection rather than blindly following someone elses, or restricting yourself to any one grade.

We have fine crags the length and breadth of the country, from Inishowen to Robert’s Cove in Cork, from Ireland’s Eye to Achill and it pays to get to know them, as most will provide rewarding experiences. Although we get our fair share of wet weather during these winter months, it is rare enough for the bad weather to be countrywide on any given day, so there is always the possibility of dodging the rain and getting in a bit of climbing somewhere .

Saturday was a prime example of this, with showers forecast for much of the country. But the east coast of Cork was one area where dry weather and sunshine was promised, so the Artful Dodgers decided to take advantage of this and pay a return visit to Knockadoon.

Our rewards were blue skies, warm rock and a gentle breeze. You won’t find the routes here on any hitlist, because, like many of the coastal crags detailed on the route data base, very few climbers frequent the area. To my mind that makes a visit all the more enjoyable, as solitude is part and parcel of the ambience of these seacliffs.

And there is always the possibility of the pleasure that comes with adding something new to the pot, which we did on Saturday – a pleasant and delicate HS on the Cylinder Slabs.

So, don’t shackle yourself to someone else’s idea of what constitutes a good route – plough your own furrow. Don’t just buy the guidebooks, go over them thoroughly, then browse the route database too, and, above all else, carry on climbing.

Wicklow Ways

Free as a bird in Glendalough

The Boys of Wexford

Magical Mystery Tour

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

The Artful Dodgers