This year’s ClimbFest, was held from Friday 3rd May until Monday 6th May hosted at the Seaview Tavern and the main focus of climbing was at Malin Head. The venue was shared with a Camper Van Club and made the Seaview Tavern quite animated. The weather was good overall, and the tides states, swell and wind speeds were perfect for coastal crags in a spectacular setting.
Rather than providing participants with another T-shirt, the club published a guide to rock climbing on the Inishowen Peninsula. This guide book, called Inishowen 100 Best Rock Climbs, contains the top 100 climbs on the Inishowen Peninsula as selected by the Colmcille Climbers at the start of 2024. The guide celebrates the Colmcille Climbers’ Club’s twenty-five years as a Mountaineering Ireland Club. It follows the coastline, heading west from Port a Doris to Dunaff Head. Completion of all Inishowen 100 Best Rock Climbs is a challenge to any seasoned climber. The routes range in grades from Diff to E4, but mostly concentrate on the Severe to Very Severe grades. While Chapters 9 and 10 are dedicated to Malin Head, in reality anywhere in the guide was easily accessible from this year’s campsite area.
Route finding can be challenging at Malin Head as most of the faces are not immediately apparent from the shore. The area immediately below and just to the west of Banba’s Crown, called Banba’s Buttresss, provides lots of easy routes ideal for training and an introduction to rock climbing. Further west is Magdalen Wall, Washboard Wall, Laundries East and West, Fitzgerald Wall, and the Cauldron which all provide great climbing, and were a hub of activity over the weekend. The furthest west area, Sea Area Malin, is now no longer accessible, due to the landowner closing access with a view to rewilding the area.
Climbers started to arrive on Thursday and this allowed time to establish camp, set up abseils and top ropes. This year saw the return of Kent Climber, Tim King, and a contingent from North Wales under the leadership of Geoff Thomas. The North Wales team included Liz Hewitt and Mel Hooper, who had been told how good climbing was in Donegal by Geoff.
The county Antrim, Down, Kent contingent arrived late on Friday morning and established base camp at the Seaview Tavern. It was a still, calm day with sunshine. They headed to Malin Head and started on Magdalen Wall, located just beyond Hell’s Hole. The wave platform was dry and the rock was warm to the touch; the tide was low giving excellent climbing. In such perfect conditions climbing on the Inishowen Peninsula is hard to beat. The two routes for the afternoon were Housemaid Direct, HS 4b and Tide Mark, HVS 5a. Friday evening around the campfire, with Alan Tees on his bouzouki guitar and Frank Nugent on vocals, saw a shift in emphasis from Trad Climbing to Trad Music.
On Saturday morning seven brave ‘Cillers’ journeyed to the beach for a ‘before-breakfast’ swim, lasting only five minutes in the freezing Atlantic waters.
The climbing started at the area just below Banba’s Crown called Banba’s Buttresss. This was an introduction to rock climbing session supported by experienced Colmcille Climbers—it allowed a sampler session for beginners of all ages. It was a great session giving many their first taste of outdoors climbing. The temporary fixed ropes allowed safe descent and top ropes were in place on a variety of lower grade routes. Alan Tees described the atmosphere as “damp with dry rock”. Further west and later in the day, The Cauldron Area was especially busy, with many climbers wanting to bag the classic routes Cutting Edge *** V Diff and the Prockagh Ridge ** V Diff.
The first ascent of Prockagh Ridge was recorded in 1939 by a group from the Youth Hostel Association of Northern Ireland (YHANI).
The weather remained pleasant but slightly overcast with favourable tides and low wind. Neil Dickson and Catrina O’Neill, who recently joined the Cillers, were at Magdalen Wall and were planning to do Carbolic Crack, before moving on to Laundry East to do Shipping News. Sligo Climbing Club members James Kelly and Laura McMorrow completed Galway Girl * S 4a.
Charlotte Azzopard, originally from France, but living in County Clare, had planned to visit Donegal but learned about the ClimbFest and decided to come along. Having completed Shipping News ** VS 4c, she described it as “a really nice crack”.
On Sunday Patrick Hughes and Mark Reynolds completed Rebel Yell HS 4b, doing it in 2 pitches. Andrew McClelland, George Beaumont, Tim King and Hugh McCann completed Claymore Crack, VS 5a. Fitzgerald Wall was very busy with routes such as Fine Gael, * V Diff and Sunningale, V Diff seeing much of the traffic.
Monday saw a change in the weather so some climbers elected to visit the Isle of Doagh in search of better weather. The approach from the Famine Village car park leads the climbers past some excellent bouldering routes, described in David Flanagan’s Bouldering in Ireland. The route for Monday was Sand Storm, VS 4c. The hardest part of the climb is the layback at the start followed by some bold climbing to the top. Afterwards there was time for some bouldering before the 2024 ClimbFest wrapped up.
David S. Walsh
Photos : Andrew McClelland and George Beaumont on Claymore Crack. Photo Tim King
Cutting Edge “Look Happy for the Tourists” and “Morning Swim” Photos David S. Walsh
