The Llŷn Peninsula extends for over 30 miles into the Irish Sea, and if you count all the crinkles it doesn’t take a genius to work out there’s getting on for 100 miles of coastline. That equates to a lot of sea cliffs, and potentially routes, but until the excellent 2024 Pen Llŷn guidebook, these were covered in rather foreboding and slightly opaque style in the previous guide – spine-chilling (trouser-filling?) route descriptions and vague approach directions meant that traffic was relatively modest. As a self-confessed sea cliff junky, it was telling that I’d only ever visited once (despite it only being 30mins further than my happy place of Gogarth). The new guide, full of colour photos and topos and (game-changer) What Three Words locations for ab points re-awakened my interest and a trip up (or across) The Path To Rome, on Cilan Head, towards the end of 2024 made me realise what I’d been missing and resulted in a resolve to explore further in 2025.

The happy coincidence of running into Pat Littlejohn, guidebook author and highly prolific Llŷn new-router, and the hugely enthusiastic (and equally prolific!) Eilir Davies-Hughes at the BMC International Meet helped cement these plans, especially as they told of developments since the guide. There’s been a veritable gold-rush of new routing, with over 300 additions recorded in the last year or so, the majority of them in relatively amenable grades (VS to E2). A taster trip to sample some of these on The Bastion, on the north coast granite slopes of Yr Eifl confirmed the quality. Helen and I were keen to go back to explore. To cut a long story short, we had a brilliant two weeks trip, escorted at intervals by Eilir and Pat, as well as Tim, Andy and Emyr, who between them have been responsible for at least 80% of the new activity. We sampled half a dozen areas, and cherry picked some of the best lines (and even added a few of our own) without touching a single route older than 12 months. We enjoyed some fantastic routes in gorgeous settings, so I thought I’d share the experience in a slightly more structured post than usual, in the hope of sharing these discoveries with a wider audience. The crags we visited are described anti-clockwise around the peninsula, rather than chronologically in the order we visited. There are up-to-date topos of nearly all the routes mentioned on the Llŷn Climbing Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1520482525451568/?locale=en_GB

The Bastion A dozen or so 40m routes from VS to E2 on immaculate granite, high above the sea, with plenty more crags in the vicinity with routes up to 4 or 5 pitches. More information and photos in the blog post linked below.

BMC International Meet and Gogarth

Craig Ddu At the foot of Yr Eifl, above the old quarrying village of Porth y Nant (now home to the Welsh Language Centre), there’s an array of granite crags scattered across the hillside. We ventured to explore on a staggeringly hot day (30C) hoping to catch some shade on the north-westerly aspect, but timed things too late. Parking (honesty payment of £2) seems to be tolerated at the Centre (at least outside peak season) though signposts at the top of the long zigzag approach road suggest that might not be the case.

Newly installed accessible walking trails make for an easy stroll to a gate from where you cross a stream into a couple of fields, heading for the corner of the far field and a slightly dilapidated looking glamping pod. Summer bracken obscures and obstructs progress from here – if you cross the fence at the corner of the field and more or less follow the left of the fence line towards and then parallel to the foot of the crags, you’ll hit the most nearby sector: Muriau’r Nant. We’d originally planned to climb on Pryderi Wall, further up the hill, but the temperature and vegetation had sapped our wills and energies, and it was all we could do to summon enthusiasm for a YECTOYD (You Either Climbed Today Or You Didn’t).

Not entirely sure if we climbed Gogarth ‘n’ Mo HVS or Wicked Witch of the South, VS 4c – good rock and moves, but spaced and fiddly gear. Could do with a bit of traffic.

Fab views down to the coast…

Only 30m of climbing but we’d more than worked up a thirst and felt duty bound to explore Cwrw Llŷn (the Llŷn Brewery) in Nefyn.

Fine mountaineering judgement!

Trwyn Glas The famous beach of Porthor (formerly known as Whistling Sands) lies on the north coast, near the western tip of the peninsula. For the most part the cliffs are bitty in the vicinity, but there are some worthwhile crags to explore just to the west. We based ourselves at a campsite at Cyndyn, near Anelog…

…and Eilir recommended meeting up at a crag just 15mins walk over the hill. Very handy.

There are about a dozen recently established routes, but I’d been seized with the new-routing bug having spent a few days with the Llŷn crew, and my eye was drawn to a steep but highly-featured lump of brown rock near the back of the zawn. Sure enough Eilir confirmed this to be virgin territory, and rapping in, the seemingly fragile, lumpy rock appeared to have a tolerable level of mechanical integrity. Game on!

The net result was Wombat Wall (a name we’d been conjuring with for a year or two, in search of a suitable crag):

Wombat Wall. A steep little wall plastered in juggy holds and spikes which are generally quite solid. Numerous slings useful. Reached by a short abseil from a platform easily accessed from above ///brilliant.publisher.engaging

1. Remember You’re a Wombat, VDiff, 15m from the toe of the buttress make a high step onto the wall and climb more easily on jugs to the top.
2. Cuboid Poo, VDiff, 15m. Climb the quartz-streaked juggy wall on outrageous holds. Steep at first
3. Mortal Wombat, Severe, 15m Start via a layback flake then up rightwards to cross the widest part of the roof via huge holds (maybe a star?)
4. Wombat Trousers, VS 4b, 25m Traverse easily rightwards along the ramp beneath the roof until a stiff pull upwards on slightly fragile holds brings easier ground. Continue trending slightly rightwards to finish up an open groove for a fitting finale. (maybe worth a star)
   Helen led #1 and I led the other 3 🙂

Here’s Helen making the first ascent of Remember You’re a Wombat:

Me setting off up Wombat Trousers

…and Helen finishing up the ‘sting in the tail’ groove

Across the way, here’s Eilir seconding Emir up Orion’s Belt, HVS

Trwyn Bychestyn This really is way out West! There are a dozen or so sectors scattered along the southwest facing tip of the peninsula, with scores of routes, typically 15m to 25m with some longer excursions – the pdf supplement runs to 37 pages! The principal rock type is mélange (yes – I thought Pat was making it up too, but Wikipedia agrees – apparently consisting of “a breccia containing massive clasts of sandstone, quartzite and limestone”.) It’s certainly a mish-mash, but don’t confuse that with being a heap of rubbish. There’s some great rock and a huge variety of styles and hold types accordingly.

Our first day on Llŷn was a bit of a damp squib (though we did eventually manage to set foot to rock – see Trwyn Wylfa below). However, we did make the most of the drizzle for a good explore of the crags around Trwyn Bychesty in the company of the local Cognoscenti – Pat, Eilir, Andy and Matt. The following random walk highlights some of the main spots.

Cosy back in RockAroundTheWorld HQ to repay local beta with much needed brews.

They say time in reconnaissance is rarely wasted, and a couple of days later we were back and could head confidently straight to the Bags of Sand sector. A sheltered short wall, well protected from the swell, with a clutch of routes from VS to E3 on great quality rock. Here’s Helen rapping in (though you can scramble).

We did Cream Pie, VS, and Brechdanau, E1 5b. Both excellent (not sure if Bags of Sand naming suggested sandbag grades, but both could justify a nudge up in our estimation)

Fine views over to Bardsey Island.

We then caught up with Eilir and Tim to head over to Ghost Wall in Handbag Zawn. This is an impressive and slightly incongruous shield of white rock – looks a bit dusty from a distance but yields great climbing on closer inspection.

Bwgan, HVS, finds the easiest way out up the left side of the wall.

… but the star attraction is Ghostbuster, E2 5c, which tackles the unlikely looking groove and is well worth its 3 stars.

Meanwhile, here’s Tim new-routing to fill in an obvious gap (launching across an obvious gap!) for a HS adventure.

… and Eilir on Soul Sister, E2 5c, which breaks right out of the Ghostbuster groove

Great to finally meet up with Tim in person, after a number of Zoom encounters on BMC business.

Maen Gwenonwy is a tiny island connected via a causeway enabling access at low to mid tide. It’s named after King Arthur’s sister, according to legend – King Arthur fought his last battle at nearby Cadlan – “Battlefield”
and his mortally wounded body was taken by boat for burial on Bardsey Island -“Avalon”.

You park as for Porth Ysgo

… for a very pleasant stroll along the coast path (this section seems little frequented)

… until a somewhat overgrown path plunges diagonally down through the bracken to the beach at the end of the causeway. Marvel, as you battle through the occasional gorse patch, that this was once the mule route to get the outputs of the manganese mining down to sea level (and consider long trousers and a pair of secateurs!)

Here’s the view along the causeway – utterly benign in the millpond smooth sea, but apparently not to be underestimated in rougher weather if an unplanned wade-out is required.

You can spiral around clockwise beneath the short but very steep south-facing wall…

… to reach the clifftop and rap down to the longer west face, or approach the foot of this directly anti-clockwise. The former has the benefits of a situ rope for the vegetated top-out and means you can easily nip down again for a second route. Either way, What Three Words comes in handy to find the belay / ab point ///suffice.employers.happening

Here’s the view of the west face taken on a recce a couple of days previously.

Steep!

Pat and Tim have taken the anticlockwise approach to arrive at the base of the wall…

As we rap in, Pat is already forging his way up new territory…

… ground up…

… on what will become Ray of Sun, E2 5c, named in memory of Ray Kaye who tragically lost his life in a climbing accident only the week before.

Here’s Eilir and Andy, hot on their heels for the second ascent.

Meanwhile, Chris and I do a couple of the “established classics” (put up in May, a couple of months previously!) Sir Liesalot E1 5b and Sword in the Stone, HVS 5b. Both involving a really physical start (I’d happily nudge both up a notch, but that’s a recurring pattern so it might just be me!) Both excellent. Here’s Chris following the former – something of a baptism of fire for his first E1 on his first outing of the year! Good effort!

Trwyn y Ffosle Cilan Head has been described in relation to Llŷn as Gogarth is to Anglesey – the proud centrepiece with a fearsome reputation. If the likes of Craig Dorys might be twinned with Gogarth’s Red Wall, then some of the recent developments could be said to bear more of a resemblance to Castell Helen.

Trwyn y Ffosle and its neighbour Ffosle De offer a few dozen routes with reasonable access via a 30m abseil to a barnacle-encrusted base at lowish tide, with options of various ledges to access some of the routes if the sea is higher.

Once you access the coastal path you trundle along…

… until a sharp turn coincides with a shallow valley running down to the sea, and we found it easiest to head down here before turning left or right at the bottom along clifftop ledges.

A couple of pegs of indeterminate origin can be backed up with wires (/// in the pdf download) to access Bish, Bash and Bosh – a trilogy of decent routes around VS / HVS.

Plenty of afternoon sun and enough non-tidal ledges that you can probably engineer a route whatever the state of the tide.

Ffosle De offers more of the same, with more compact rock.

Hunter’s Groove is the obvious defining feature at HS with the intriguing description to avoid the thin parallel cracks at two-thirds height. This seemed like an open invitation for some more new-routing, and Carrion Cracks (picking up the scraps from the hunter), VS 4b follows cracks in the left wall of the groove, to climb the two thin cracks avoided by that route, then share the finish
Eyes Tight Shut, VS 4c. A variation start to Traed Melyn following a couple of quartz cracks up the pleasant wall to its left, before joining at the overlap. Our variants in dotted orange.

Shared finish with Hunter’s Groove…

Tiers for Fears, HVS, further right, finds a way through three increasingly tricky overhangs. Like many of the routes hereabouts, an extra notch on the adjectival grade wouldn’t go amiss.

A few hundred metres further south, the two walls of Trwyn Melyn and Mur Planed are separated by the stupendous corner line of Mercury, E1 5b and deserving of its three stars. We had Eilir along for the day, and he had his camera, so we got some great pics.

The two routes to the right, both E1 – Evening Star and Life on Mars, couldn’t be more different. Crimpy wall climbing on spaced gear (especially at the start). Both really good.

All the above are easily accessible on foot directly for the Cilan Fawr campsite – a simple but friendly spot with stunning views.

Cilan Head – Vatican Zawn Thrown in for completeness in this quick whiz around the Llŷn, here’s the trip report from my one previous excursion onto the peninsula – The Path to Rome makes it onto my all time top ten and should be on the to do list of any visiting climber.

The Path to Rome

Trwyn Wylfa completes our circumnavigation of the peninsula – a whole bunch of routes on the west-facing cliff that leads out from Porth Ceiriad bay.

We only explored this briefly, in search of dry rock on our first day, and shunting out of a very sploshy wave-washed Sacrificial Poles, HVS, hardly constitutes a good recce. Plenty more to come back for.

That’s it for the climbing, but it’s worth highlighting that there’s so much more to Llŷn than the crags. It hasn’t become one of the country’s favourite seaside destinations on the back these! A huge selection of camping options including another base we used on our trip at Tudweiliog

… lovely spot for a great sunset.

The weather on our final couple of days was so toasty we had to flee to the beach (you could be forgiven for thinking we’d mixed in some shots from the Seychelles!)

It was so hot the next day that we bailed home (I’ve occasionally run away from North Wales after being burned off, but not like this!)

A happy coincidence that John and Chloe were in The Pass made for an impromptu birthday lunch at the Padarn and then a cooling splosh in the lake afterwards. A grand end to a great couple of weeks!

That’s it for our blast around the Llŷn – hopefully it’s convinced you that there’s plenty to go at, in a reasonable grade range, on (mostly) solid rock and with a fairly amenable approach. Our overall take on the quality and technical grades of the routes is that they’re pretty much spot on, but you might want to have something in hand for the adjectival grade – at least until you are tuned in. Next time you’re planning a week in Pembroke, how about mixing things up a bit with a trip to its northern cousin instead? The ambience is every bit as wonderful, you’ll see far fewer crowds, and there’s none of that pesky faff avoiding our brave boys on target practice! Give it a go 🙂