With the weather set fair across the country it seemed like an ideal opportunity for the visit to Mull that we’d been mulling. Unfortunately, our erstwhile trusty van had other ideas and a snapped chassis in Glasgow put paid to that plan. We can’t really complain after 12 years and 150,000 miles of loyal service (although the same can’t be said of our RAC experience, but I will spare you the trauma).
Anyway, we were eventually back to square one, ie home (us, not the van), and faced with being van-less for more or less the first time in 30 years… and the sun was shining!
Desperate times and all that, so we broke out the tent for a local trial run. Keen for a change of scene but staying close to home whilst we waited for the van to make its way back from Scotland, we hopped over the hill to Edale and found that we had the whole of the NT campsite at Upper Booth to ourselves.
Simply glorious!
… though a tad chilly overnight and we woke to a thick frost on the outside of the tent.
With repairs likely to take weeks rather than days, and continued fine weather, we hatched a plan for a week’s getaway. We couldn’t quite face the prospect of Mull quite so soon after our disappointment, but how about the Mull of Galloway…
We’d visited a few years ago, and really enjoyed this tranquil and largely untravelled corner of Scotland. Here’s the blog post from that trip:
Without the van, and keeping the tent option in reserve for now, we embarked on a new chapter of RockAroundTheWorld. I never thought I’d find myself using the words “Glamping Pod”…
Before diving into the climbing it is worth giving a “Big Up” to John Biggar and his excellent web resource for climbing in Galloway
http://www.johnbiggar.com/galloway-climbing-index.asp
The area is covered in Lowland Outcrops but we couldn’t get hold of a copy en route (and were a bit reluctant to try too hard as the straw that broke the van’s back was a stop in search of a guide for Mull). No worries because the Biggar blog has great coverage and some handy advice on crag selection.
Crammag
First stop was a retrospective from our last trip to the southern most tip of the Galloway peninsula, and the first lighthouse of the trip.
Viking Zawn takes a bit of finding (54.664256° N 04.963646° W), but Fallen Star is worth seeking out – a leaning pillar topped by a stupendous set of jugs.
Hourglass Slab is easier to spot, as they’ve built a chuffing great lighthouse on top.
Half a dozen routes of around 20m on immaculate, grippy granite, with quite sparse gear.
Bully Beef, VS 4b, was indeed excellent as promised…
Razammattaz, HVS 5a, was a bit squeezed in…
… and the eponymous Hourglass Slab, S 4a, was worthy of the top billing.
Views to Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and the Lakes.
Money Head
Biggar uses a 1-to-5 star rating for crags, and we obviously had to take in the 5* offerings of Crammag and Clifton (see further down). Money Head gets ****, I guess losing out due to the modest number of routes. It’s another one which took a while to figure out (the curse of the seacliff where tufts of grass and thrift make for poor markers of what’s hidden out of sight below).
I eventually found the promised scramble down to access the Bear Pit…
… but wasn’t very taken. However, this gave me a clue to the whereabouts of Cioch Slab (sited towards the far end of the photo below).
Here are the GPS coordinates to save you the faff: 54.665080° N 04.965176° W
There’s a fairly straightforward scramble down, but if you’re doing a few routes it’s probably easier to drop an Ab rope.
Rainbow’s End, S 4a
Pot of Gold, VS 4c,
… and Martin’s Bank, VS 4c (nudging HVS) are all well worth their 3*s
A shift of Basecamp, from Glamping Pod to Boutique Hotel (oh how the other half live!) took us to the quirky Corsewall Lighthouse.
Sadly you don’t get to kip in the actual tower itself, but its position at the northerly tip of the peninsula makes for a stupendous sunset viewing spot.
Perfect sundowner spot. Cheers!
Nature has had the good grace to provide a gap, between Northern Ireland and Kintyre, for the sun to set into.
Fine views north to Arran and the curious volcanic plug of Alisa Craig
Portobello
Our lighthouse was the ideal location to access Portobello, just 20mins to the south.
Wandering down from the parking spot, you get an early sideways view of the main buttress…
… but it’s very tidal so we decided to wander a few hundred metres further north up the coast to start on the non-tidal Primrose Inlet. Clearly marked by the eponymous flowers.
This is a micro crag, no more than 10m tall, and only half a dozen routes, but they’re high quality – particularly Bottom Feeders, HVS 5a
Here’s Ann Chovy, S 4a
With the crag largely climbed out, and the waters receding, we headed back around the headland to the Portobello main event: Sea Buttress. This plummets straight into the sea, even at a lowish tide, and there’s nothing much in the way of a belay ledge, so some hanging shenanigans are required. It’s worth the faff to enjoy Happy Man, S 4a, up a pair of parallel juggy cracks.
That took us to the halfway point in our Galloway Getaway, and it was time to leave the peninsula (is there a name for the “hammer head” double-ended peninsula? Bi-insula maybe? Next stop, the south coast of Dumfries and Galloway, overlooking the Solway Firth.
RockAroundTheWorld 