There was a strong desire to get to Fairhead after the weekend of the Malinbeg Climbfest 2025, as the weather was due to be good. So we decided to go to Fairhead on Saturday 10th May and camp overnight at the farm, continuing with more climbing on the Sunday.

On Saturday I climbed with Fiona, James and Emi (non CCCers). The routes we climbed at the small crag were Spinola * S 4a (led by James and seconded by Fiona) and Pitchfork S 4a (top roped by Emi and I). The weather was excellent throughout the day.

Feeling inspired, at 4:30pm Emi and I started climbing (via alternating leads) An Bealach Rúnda *** E1 5b and topped out in the dark with head torches at ~11:30pm, before getting a chip in Ballycastle. The route, which must be right in the middle of Fairhead, requires a 100 metre abseil to get to. The climbing sort of feels like Girona *** VS 5a but… on anabolic steroids, and on the cusp of being completely out of control by having an enormous detached pillar, and a feeling of exposure. A real adventure.

The following day I woke up feeling as if I were implicated in some kind of car collision. Undeterred, I met up with George and we went on to climb (alternate leads) December ** HVS 5a in the Binnagapple area. Afterwards we headed East to the small crag to do Plan 9 from Outer Space * HVS 5b (a fantastic lead by George given its short lived brutality) and Santana VS 4b (led by me). We called it a day after this and I met up with the others before heading back home.

The photo at the top of this post was taken at ~9:30pm while at the top of the second pitch of An Bealach Rúnda. It was quite nice watching the sunset over Rathlin island. The blank face to the left is home to An Bealach Eile *** E8 6c. I assumed while at this belay that the empty face couldn’t be climbed given it’s featurelessness. I only figured out that there was this ungodly E8 living in it when was glancing over the guidebook after the weekend.