Saturday 31st May at Fairhead… or is it Benmore? This is a follow up to Colmcillers at Fairhead Meet May 2024. This year for one reason or another there was no organised boulder field tour which was a shame as last year was my first time bouldering outside and the atmosphere was very positive.

I met George at the McBrides car park at about 9:30am. The weather forecast was not ideal. We headed to the Prow to check out how busy it was and decided to go to Farrangandoo (I’m not quite sure if this is pronounced Farran-gan-doo or Farrang-an-doo). We abseiled into the gully where Lazarus * VS 4c is located and heard the cry of a curlew in the distance. George was going to lead Jezebel * HVS 5b, the route right of Lazarus, however once the ropes were flaked out, for some reason I couldn’t remember how to tie into the rope.

It is amusing when one of those actions you’ve done for a few years just slips out of your mind, to the point where you can’t actually recall how to complete the action. It felt as if it were a muscle memory thing… I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. George made relative ease of his ascent. During my seconding I felt clumsy and unfocused. My feet slipped once or twice from the rock. It was either me, my resoled shoes, or the rock as George informed me it rained the day before. It was probably a combination.

It was now my turn to lead and I was ambitious to climb ‘something hard’ (despite the pumpy feel of Jezebel and my inattention…) So we went down the abseil again to climb Hard Rain E1 5b. It started raining during my lead. Water was beginning to pool on ledges and it was dripping down the thin crack crux towards the top. I hemmed and hawed just at the point where the route became more of a committing offwidthy crack climb. I couldn’t make my mind up on whether or not to commit and just go for it, but the rain was demoralising. Its effect on the rock made me question every foot placement.

After a suggestion from George I traversed right to the next route, Velocette VS 4b. It was a good idea because the lead up Velocette was terrible. When George was seconding he mentioned his feet were slipping off the wall at the small overhangy crux. Climbing in the rain is such a dismal affair. With grey overcast skies and being soaked, we headed back to the car park to get lunch.

Arriving back at the farm I met with David Walsh where he was selling copies of the club’s recent guidebooks, with the support of Sean McBride and the Dal Riada Climbing Club team. The guides were Inishowen 100 Best Rock Climbs: Colmcille Climbers 25 Years as an MI Club edited by David and Classic Rock Climbs in Ulster produced by Alan Tees and David. They feature a range of popular routes in Ulster with great photos. It was a joy to see the various folk pick up a copy for their future adventures.

Photo of David with Niall Grimes above.

The bookshop at the meet with folks queuing for the McBrides burgers (which were very tasty!)

About half an hour or so passed before George appeared commentating on the weather. The sun was back out and spirits were high, so we decided to go for another climb. I snaffled some pasta into me before we walked (back) over to the Prow. We went down an already set up abseil, which took us to the base of Mongrel Fox ** E1 5b. The rock looked incredibly dry considering the shower we experienced earlier and there were already a number of parties around the corner in the Ballycastle direction. Given this, George decided to give Mongrel Fox a go.

As he set off, reaching the part where the two parallel cracks appear, a climber came abseiling down the same line as the route. George held tight to let them pass. However shortly after this another came abseiling down. This was to become a pattern as the weather at that moment was sublime with blue skies, a little wind and glorious white fluffy clouds. George continued up the route moving between two cracks in a similar manner to Railroad *** E1 5b, dodging abseilers. There must have been about eight in total that came down, I greeted them all when they reached the bottom:

“Great weather isn’t it?”

To which they reply “Yes hopefully it keeps. What route is that?”

“Mongrel Fox” says I, “It’s meant to be one of the longest E1s at the Prow”

“Class!” they say, mostly in their young southern accents. 

“Good luck!”

“You too!”

Once George topped out I seconded. For me, the route felt similar to Railroad but a little steeper and required so much more jamming. The transitions between cracks required a bit more thought as well. Easily, my arms got pumped and I was getting a little tired of the practice of jamming in general. I’d had my fill. There was a lovely section where there’s a ledge over halfway up that has no jamming which provided a nice break to the whole activity. Further on and towards the final steeper section of the climb I was fearful of running out of energy trying to liberate an offset nut. Thankfully with patience and a poke of the nut key, it was released and the climb was soon after completed.

When coiling up the ropes and exchanging gear, George asked “What next?” I wasn’t sure given the state of my forearms and the impending dark, showery weather front looming over Ballycastle. I ate more food and we waited a little. What was blue golden skies, again, became dark and overcast with rain. So we decided again to head back to the car park.

Along the walk back we talked about the recent developments in AI. I decided to use a photo I had of Fairhead and pass it through AI to see what it generated (below). The other images were produced by AI as well, except the obvious ones that David provided above. The AI generated images are quite appealing images despite having not been created by a human.

Reaching the car park and then the camp site, the weather yet again was starting to clear up. After about half an hour and feeling slightly insane as a result of the endless rationalising about the weather, we decided for the final time to make a third trip into the crag that day. It was about 6:30pm at this stage. Though, there was a feeling that one could ‘manifest’ the good weather by looking up at the sky, followed by glaring down towards a bit of puddly wet rock at one’s feet. It paid off as we headed down the Ballycastle Descent Gully. The East face was dry, and golden with the sun on it. George suggested The Brat VS 4b and April * E1 5b (with a two star variation at the same grade). I chose The Brat given my poor foot work earlier (a good choice due to what was coming).

The Brat is situated beside the obvious pinnacle when looking down into the gully. It has a deceptive crack at the start which, if one looks around, can be avoided completely with some holds on the face. It was damp, green and slippy in the crack as well. Coming up to a mantle type move to complete the initial crack part, my foot slipped on a greenish sloper and I almost completely fell off. Thankfully there was a bomber hand jam at this section protecting me. After this there is a more enjoyable and thrilling crack section with just the right level of exposure followed by easier climbing to the top. Some of the rocks looked a bit dodgy and making a belay was a little so-so (there is a stake one can use). George followed and we called it a day before heading back to the car park.

I used the previous paragraph to generate this image above. Supposedly that’s me on The Brat.

Saturday’s talk that evening was by Hazel Findlay and Angus Kille. They talked about their background in climbing growing up. Their different approaches to climbing growing up and their approach today. They made commentary on UK and Irish trad climbing in general. Hazel also talked about her trip to Greenland with Alex Honnold. While, Angus talked about an incident where he (I think) ruptured three pulley ligaments of one of his pinky fingers… which sounds absolutely awful. They both mentioned on what it’s like to be climbers while raising a new born child before taking some questions at the end.

After the talk, there was socialising with Niall Grimes playing music in the barn. Shortly after this we headed back home to Belfast as we weren’t camping. Overall it was an interesting day with the weather being on and off. Similar to last year it was nice to see familiar faces and to share experiences with other climbers. It was great to climb routes I have not done before too.