Donegal Rock Climbing. Gull Island

 Living at the base of Slievtooey's north coast in one of Ireland's most remote and isolated locations, there lives a 100 m high flat topped island. The island sits approximately 6 KM from Maghera caves to the east, 8 km from An Port road end to the West and 4.5 KM from the nearest place to park the car to the south. Whichever way you approach Gull Island it is a long way across open, unpathed and rarely visited uplands.
 Access to the raised shingle storm beach which separated the island from mainland Donegal is by a 100 m steep grass / loose rock down climb and scramble.
 This marathon walk in and careful descent of the surrounding slopes takes you to an outrageous location as you stand on a huge horseshoe shaped raised shingle storm beach surrounded by a majestic back drop of the 300 m high sea cliffs of Slievetooey.  
 But it is what stands out to sea in front you that instills your first rushes of primal fear. The landward face of gull Island is quite simply an enormous 150m aréte of near biblical proportions. Standing at the base of this aréte tying into your rope and preparing to climb is where your internal battle with your inner demons begins. Inversely it is also what makes this type of adventurous rock climbing in potentially very serious locations one of the most foolish and rewarding activities it is possible to participate in.

Gull island Rock Climbing film

  It was in April 2009 that I made the first of many visits to this island, in attendance on this first visit was Martin Bonner and Andy Mcinroy. At this time both Gull Island and stack behind it were unclimbed. Our intent on this first visit was to climb the 80 m high twin summited sea stack off the seaward face of Gull Island but alas due to Neptunes rage and us being scared we opted for the "less chance of drowning "option of the landward aréte of Gull Island.
 Martin and myself climbed this monsterous aréte in three very dangerous feeling pitches. We used three pegs at the top of the first unprotected 45m pitch and placed an abseil stake on the summit and backed it up with a cairn. All in all an excellent and mildy terrifying day at the end of a rope.
 The original route description I gave Gull Island kind of speaks volumes of the type of climbing ans situations involved.

Gull Island   XS 5a   145m
 Pitch 1: 50m 4a To the left of landward aréte climb the soaring corner crack until the grassy rake. Traverse upwards and right to gain the aréte proper. Two good gear placements in 50m, fall and you will die)
 Pitch 2: 50m Climb the aréte by a very atmospheric scramble and up the jenga tower to the perched boulder at it's summit.
 Pitch 3: 45m Crimp left and up superb rock and continue to the summit by your easiest convenience.     Iain Miller, Martin Bonner 24/04/09

 Many thanks to our cliff top voyeur Andy Mcinroy, Andy's Photographic site is HERE.

Gull island, Donegal

 And sho, with these rather worrying memories lurking in my head it became time for a return visit to Gull Island and it's landward aréte. In attendance on this occasion were Aidan Mc Ginley and Louise O'Connor, both Aidan and Louise have been doing work experience with Unique Ascent over the summer as part of their FAS outdoor instructor course. And what better way to finish a work placement than a visit deep into the Realms of Chaos.

Storm Beach at the base of Gull island

Pitch 1

 And Sho, Gull Island round 2. We left our homes at an unsociably early hour in the morning and had a clandestine meet up and car share in Ardara to our real world exit point on the south face of Slievetooey. It was a misty, wet and pretty miserable two and a half hour walk over Slievetooey to the cliff tops overlooking Gull island and Satan.
 A swift abseil over the 100 m high edge and we pulled the Ab rope and scrambled / down climbed onto the huge storm beach. It was indeed the scary place that I had stored on the back shelves of memory as we racked up and prepared to climb. Louise and myself were to climb whilst Aidan was our photographer.

Pitch 1

 I led pitch one very carefully digging about for any meaningful gear placements and with a modicum of relief reach the tri-peg anchor at the top of the 45 m pitch. In total seven gear placement alas only three of them would have held even the smallest of falls and up came Louise.
 At the top of this pitch, 45 m above the storm beach we crouched on the 10 cm mud ledge as a passing shower paid a brief visit.

Pitch 3

 On pitch 2 due to the instability of the 15 m jenga tower, I built another peg belay on solid terra firma and Louise joined me for tea and tiffin.
 Pitch 3 is the beast in the back garden as you edge your way higher and higher above excellent gear amidst a sea of uncertainties. This pitch has a vast selection of unpleasant charactaristics which include a crimpy slab and an overhung jug haul to the salvation of a huge flat topped summit and it is a most outstanding sumit.
 Louise and myself had a wee wander around this football pitch pitch sized summit and all too quickly we began the descent.

Crux Moves on Pitch 3

 The descent from the summit of Gull Island involves two 50 meter abseils and a wee bit of guile and rope trickery in the middle section and we were back on the beach.

 with the addition of the peg belay at the top of pitch 2 and the digging about for gear placement I have altered the route description to allow for a more up to date idea of what an ascent of this stack involves.

Gull Island   E1 5a   125m

 Pitch 1: 50m, 3a. To the west of the landward aréte climb the huge corner crack until it terminates. traverse right and ascend the ramp to gain the aréte and a tri-peg belay. (3 good gear placements in 50m, fall & you will die)

 Pitch 2, 25m. Continue up the aréte by a very atmospheric scramble to the big block overhang at the base of the boulder field. (2 peg belay)

 Pitch 3, 50m, 5a. Climb the stack boulder field to the two big boulders perched on top. Crimp left and ascend to the summit through the two rock bands

The summit of Gull Island

Rock Climbing is not a spectator sport?

Gull island Panoramic

 Fear is not a negative emotion, fear is an understanding we have nothing to fear.

Tormore Island, Ireland's highest sea stack

 There are few places on Earth that can compare to the surreal nature of the coastal architecture that surrounds Tormore Island. This island sits at the southern end of Glenlough Bay at the far western tip of the Slievetooey coastline in South West Donegal.
 Living approximately 300 meters out to sea from the storm beach at the Entrance to Shambhala, resides this huge island/sea stack. At about 160 meters high Tormore Island is Ireland's highest sea stack and it stands guard over a truly outstanding collection of sea stacks and towers in this very inaccessible and mildly scary location. Surrounding the sea approaches to Tormore are the 100 meters high Cnoc na Mara, Lurking Fear, Hidden Stack and the 100 meters high Cobbler's Tower.
 This really is a surreal place of giants, the routes to the summits of the giants are all in the Donegal Sea Stack Guide and this guide only really scrapes the surface of the climbing potential of the Donegal coastline.

A paddle around Tormore Island

 Access to the base of the Tormore involves a 3 kilometer clifftop walk from the An Port road end and a 250 meter scramble down to one of two storm beaches at sea level. It is possible to access sea level from both The Entrance to Shambhala storm beach and An Chlochán Mór storm beach below Glenlough Bay. Each of those exit points for the sea crossing present it's own set of potential marine difficulties and both are very dependent on a specific set of nautical conditions and tide phases. Each of these two sea passages are of course equally emotional.
 From sea level it is then a 300 meter sea passage to the narrow channel separating Tormore Island from Cobbler's Tower. Cobblers Towers is Donegal's highest free standing tower and is connected to mainland Donegal by a series of suicidally loose ridges and collapsing minor towers. What this essentially means is the approach and possible escape from the labyrinth surrounding Tormore is by sea passage with no sane over land entry/exit points.

 Commitment to the task in hand is the key. :-)  

  Tormore Island (South View)

 The channel separating Tormore from Mainland Donegal is a nautical labyrinth comprising 4 major sea stacks and the Cobbler's tower massif. These five major land masses work well in conjunction with the myriad of smaller outlaying tidal skerries to produce a stretch of very difficult to predict tidal conflictions which unfortunately produce a great deal of white water violence.  

Tormore Island (North View)

 It was in August 2008 aboard a 240 HP driven R.i.B. four troopers left Burton Port bound for Tormore. On the R.i.B. was Alan Tees, Peter Copper Pete McConnel and Myself and off course captain Paul Bathgate. The short story of that day out and the First Ascent of Tormore Island is below.

The First Ascent of Tormore Island.

 It was in the midst of a monsoon at 7am on a wet and dark Sunday morning that four troopers gathered on Burtonport Pier. In attendance were noble brothers Peter Cooper, Alan Tees, Pete Copper and myself, we all sat in the impending gloom as the dark vertical rods of rain from the blackened sky rained down on our cars.

 The object of our collective desires was the summit of the 160 meter previously unclimbed Tormore Island, Ireland's highest sea stack. Alan and Myself had made several attempts at taming this beast in the past, so by default the approach of choice today was to be by R.I.B. Our noble stead was being Captained by Paul Bathgate, a veteran of nautical misadventures along the Donegal coastline. Our noble stead it's self was a 76 mph monster of a R.I.B. and we were on our way.

 Now I'm not sure if my fellow cohorts knew what to expect when I mentioned using this type of vessel for an attempt, but upon setting sail and Captain Bathgate opening the throttle a tad, the white knuckles and blank expressions from the troopers spoke volumes.

 It was indeed excellent to see that after 30 seconds of this adventure that we were already mildly terrified.

 Ten minutes later we rounded Torneady Point at the Northern tip of Arranmore Island and into very atmospheric seas and for the next 40 minutes we got a bit of a nautical kicking as we pounded up, over and through 20 foot walls of white nautical rage. Words can't describe our journey from Arranmore to Tormore Island suffice to say it was very emotional indeed.

 As we arrived at Tormore Island it was under siege by the legions of the damned and they were riding monster white horses, Neptune was in attendance and was furious. Our fearless and mildly insane Captain navigated the channel separating the stack from Cobbler's Tower, sensory overload had already been well and truly reached and breached as we entered the cauldron of angry white sea in the pits of hate. After 10 minutes of pretty amazing boat handling skills four wide eyed fools were left on a non-tidal ledge at the bottom of the landward face of Tormore Island.

 With a "See you at Four" our boat and Captain screamed out of the channel and into the maelstrom. 

 And Sho, as ordered the rain stopped and the Sun came out. 

 "Lets cane the beast" we all cried in unison.

 The first 45 meter pitch was an excellent affair of V. Diff climbing up superb quartz and growing atmosphere to an excellent block belay at the very edge of the abyss.

 We were climbing caterpillar stylee, which means as three troops met on a stance, the next pitch is led while the fourth trooper is ascending the previous pitch. 

 Anyways, as Peter Cooper came up pitch one, Alan Tees led off up pitch two of slabby mixed ground to a lofty perch below the monsterous roofs which loomed above us in the middle distance.

 Pitch three bypassed the roofs on the left and had a modicum of exposure and atmosphere as further mixed ground took us to a huge ledge and superb tri-peg belay stance. Thankfully the discovery of this belay meant we could now definitely abseil off this stack, a minor point of concern I had been giving due consideration all morning.

 Pete McConnel hoovered up pitch 4, it being a vertical celebration of mud, grass and grot with 2 useless runners in the first 30 meters, it was a rude awakening to stack world for Noble Brother McConnel. The summit ridge was reached and a solitary block belay in a huge ocean of green was found. One by One we scrambled the last 20 meter grass ridge a spectacular summit at about 160 meters above sea level. 

 Photos were taken and evidence of previous visitors sought, we found no evidence of any previous visitors.

 We made an abseil descent of our route, 4 X 45 meter abseils using the now insitu peg belays, took us to our non tidal ledge to await our lift home.

 Being last to abseil, I arrived at the ledge to a very ominous silence. The seas were now crashing either side off the channel and every forth wave threw thousands of tons of green on to Hidden Stack about 40 meters away opposite us. This was absolutely outstanding to stand and watch but alas it was not so good for our travel arrangements as we had no sleeping bags.

 "What do you think?" Asked Brother Tees

 "Aw, it'll be fine." came my confident reply. Internally I considered us to be in a spot of mild peril.

 And so, for the next half hour we sat in quiet contemplation, and with a bang, into the channel of rage came our noble stead listing at 50 degrees to Port and riding a monster Greeny, full astern and Captain Bathgate and Crewman Mike Crowe got thrashed about in an astounding display of seamanship, our mighty vessel was getting an almighty nautical kicking. Several passes of our ledge and with the luggage was safely stowed on board, our noble stead spent the next 10 minutes in the center of the cauldron riding the chaotic seas.

 "RIGHT, I'M COMING IN AGAIN, I CAN'T SAY IN HERE ANY LONGER, GET IN!" came our orders from our now slightly manic Captain Bathgate and in he came and a single nano second later we were all in the boat.

 "THANK F*CK FOR THAT!" our nautical maestro roared as we crashed through the green to exit the channel and out onto the high seas.

 Now that, Ladies and Gentlemen was a high end emotional exit from a sea stack.

 The journey back to Burtonport was bumpy, but in full daylight and sunshine it was excellent sport. Half an hour of wave bouncing later saw us into sheltered water between Arranmore Island and Burtonport harbour, it was at this point Captain Bathgate gave the beast full throttle and 60 mph + we arrived in Burtonport Harbour, a bit like flying on a very very low flying Plane.

   

 Tormore Island Route

 Tormore Island   VS   220m

 Grid Reference G556908. At 160m high is Irelands highest sea stack and is the daddy of Donegal's sea stacks, it can be seen from Dungloe, approx 40 KM to the North East. 

 This route climbs the very obvious landward arete at the eastern end of the island. This feature can be clearly seen from any position along this coast overlooking the stack. Access to the stack is an involved affair and a boat approach is recommended.

 Descent is by 4 50m abseils down the route using the block and peg belays described.

 Pitch 1. 45m Starting on the non tidal ledge in the centre of the landward face, directly opposite Hidden Stack. Climb the blunt arete to the right of the basalt vein, follow the corners and ledges on superb quartz to a large block belay.

 Pitch 2, 40m Continue up the blunt arete on slabby mixed ground to a large ledge below the huge capping roof. (Peg Belay)

 Pitch 3. 45m Climb direct to the left end of the huge roofs on excellent rock, with an increased awareness of your surroundings. Pass the roof on their left and continue up the huge shallow gully on mixed ground to a large ledge. (Peg Belay)

 Pitch 4. 45m Climb direct up the vertical grass to the exposed summit ridge, scramble along the ridge for 15m to a large block belay.

 Pitch 5. 20m scramble the grassy ridge to the summit.

 I. Miller, P. McConnel, A. Tees, P. Cooper 10/08/08

Glenlough Bay Approach

 There are/were two sea stack along the Donegal coast that on their first ascents the bases of the stacks were accessed by the use of a R.i.B. and an outboard engine, these two stacks were Tormore Island and the 120 meter high Giants Reek Stack off Aranmore Island. I always thought this was a tad unsporting and just lately Aiden McGinley and myself made an unmotorized landing on Tormore island, alas we only climbed the first two pitches (100 meters) and abseiled back to sea level due to oncoming wind and rain. We are currently awaiting a suitable day with Neptune in a good mood to return to Tormore and make a full unmotorized ascent of the stack. 

Landing on Tormore

Climbers on Pitch 2

climbers on pitch 2

Top of Pitch 3

Summit of Tormore Island

Hidden Stack & Cobbler's Tower from Tormore

Cnoc na Mara & Tormore from Cobbler's Tower 

Shambhala

Sea Stack Climbing

 And Sho, with more than a week of 20+ temperatures and blistering sunshine in Co Donegal it would have been rude not to go out and play as much as was humanly possible.
 A week of outstanding weather and we were off to Glenlough Bay, with a view to making an ascent of Tent Stack, alas Neptune was most definitely in the building. We arrived at the top of the cliff top descent gully in the bay to the sound of millions of tonnes of shingle being raised and lower on the beach 200m below. As we descended the gully the 16 foot surf coming into the bay in walls of Caribbean blue sea were absolutely outstanding to stand and watch, but alas we needed to cross them to gain our sea stack.
 Watch the short film below, as it shows just how outstanding Donegal's little known places are, it also shows the county looking very much like southern Spain.

Glenlough Bay Film

Descent Gully to Glenlough Beach

Raised Shingle Storm Beach

Sea Stack Summit view

Glenlough Bay

 The following day, it was a return to An Port for a wee look at Berg Stack and as the previous day the seas were ramping 16 footers from the West. It took a wee bit of nautical guile to circumnavigate the outlaying skerries to allow safe passage to the Berg stack. Once we all arrived at the base of the stack it all became a bit overheated as the "oven effect" was on full pelt in the mid-day sun. We ascended "Mayday, Mayday," up the landward face and with an airy top out onto the huge wedge summit to a perfect sea breeze and pounding white water around us and around all the outer skerries and islands. It would have been easy to sit all day watching the sea.                                  

Berg Stack, An Port

Colm & Christine on Berg Stack Summit

 The following day it was once more back to An Port, this time for a wee look at the mighty Cnoc na Mara.
 It is difficult to put into words the journey up Cnoc na Mara as it is a truly outstanding 100m high sea stack. It's landward arete is a classic 150m long mountaineering/coastaleering journey. The climbing is never hard but is very exposed and there is a wee bit of thought required to the rope work and "getting back down." 
 Thankfully Neptune was in a much better mood and we made the paddle to and from the stack without too much drama! :-)
 The short film below shows the exposed nature of this very spacial sea stack climb. :-) 

Sea Stack Climbing Film

Cnoc na Mara

The Entrance to Shambhala

The Paddle out to the Sea Stack

Holly abandoned on the Cnoc na Mara

Summit Ridge

Looking up, Pitch 4

The 2nd Abseil to sea Level

Ireland mid Winter

 It is safe to say the winter weather in Donegal in the last 10 days has been truly outstanding with mid summer sun and bright blue skies. And so, it would have been rude not to venture forth and have a wee play while the sun shone.
 Met up with Josie McGee and we paid a visit to one of the most remote places in Ireland, Glenlough Bay at the far sea ward tip of the Slievetooey Peninsula. We arrived at the An Port Road End at an unsociably early hour and walked for an hour over the monster sea cliffs to arrive at the viewpoint overlooking Glenlough Bay.

Glenlough Bay

Slievetooey Peninsula

 Our cunning plan was an ascent of Donegal's highest freestanding tower, alas this unclimbed tower sits in one of the most inaccessible locations in Ireland and as such the emotions were forecast to be high.

 The next stage in our plan was a steep descent to sea level and from previous visits we follow the only sane way to the beach down a huge steep gully.

Descent to Glenlough Bay

Shambhala

 Once at sea level we coastaleered our way south for about 600m through a moonscape of house sized boulders and ever increasing wave action. We finally arrived at a very deep zawn and raging white water to a place where you are about as far from the real world as it is possible to be in Ireland. An outstanding and slightly scary location surrounded by giants and angry white water. Our tower was a no go and we retreated back to the storm beach and went for a play on Tent Stack.

Donegal's highest free standing tower

 And sho, we coastaleered our way back to Shambhala and continued to the base of Tent Stack. Tent Stack is a 60m sea stack with a short tidal approach, it's only been climbed once before in December 2008. The detail are in the Donegal Sea Stack guidebook.

Donegal Sea Stacks

 Alas by now, neither time nor tide was in our favour and we boulder hopped onto the stack and made a very quick ascent of the 90m Diff route up it's landward face, in two pitches.

Coastaleering in Ireland modeled by Josie

Tent Stack Summit

 Our exit from the stack was a little less stylish as we were now surrounded by angry white water and so a very choppy swim was the order of the day to land us back onto terra firma. 

 An outstanding day out in the winter sun. :-)

An Port Western Donegal

Glenlough Bay

  

Irish Sea Stacks. Cnoc na Mara

 Standing at 100m high, 150m out to sea, at the base of a 250m sea cliff and approx 25km from the nearest main road is Cnoc na Mara. This iconic Donegal sea stack was first climbed in 2008 by myself, Alan Tees and Martin McGuigan by it's 150m long landward arete. This route provides one of the most outstanding rock climbing adventures in Ireland.
 And So, in the house were Steve & Dell Hambling on a three week tour of Ireland from Indiana US of A, Steve had set his sights on the summit of the mighty Cnoc na Mara.
 We arrived at the Port road end and made the 3km walk along the clifftops to the 250m descent slopes, Dell was our clifftop photographer and opted to stay on a wee flattening 200m above and overlooking our stack.

Cnoc na Mara in the early morning sun

 It was early morning and the sun had yet to make it's way around to our descent slopes, an hour of very careful descent and we rigged and made the final 40m abseil onto the lonely storm beach facing Cnoc na Mara. The descent down these slopes plays a very unusual optical illusion, as you descend the slopes Cnoc na Mara gets bigger and bigger and bigger, by the time you are at sea level you are left in no doubt as to what a 100m high sea stack looks like. :-) This storm beach is one of the most atmospheric places in Ireland,  with a seaward view of three monster sea stacks (inc Tormore Island, Ireland's highest sea stack), basking seals, two sea arches, many huge sea caves and a almost overwhelming sense of being truly alive.

The short abseil onto the storm beach

 We sorted the climbing gear, inflated the boat and made the 150m sea passage out to the stack. The sea had a 1m westerly swell and we traveled out in the lee of Cnoc na Mara which allowed us to make a smooth sea passage to the base of the landward face of the stack.

Steve landing on the sea stack

  The first 40m pitch is gentle introduction to sea stack climbing up a smooth basalt wall and along a short exposed ridge to a large grassy ledge. The second pitch is an airy ascent of a 25m ramp along the edge of a 40 to 60m overhanging wall, the situation and atmosphere is outstanding. This took us to a huge boulder belay and now fully warmed up and in the zone we began the ascent of pitch 3. 

Looking down pitch 3

 Pitch 3 is 30m long and climbs a super exposed ridge line up the spine of the stacks landward face, climbing up the ramp and stepping round the corner is a moment you will remember forever. :-) As we both sat on the ledge at the top of pitch 3, with 80m of air and overhanging drops back to sea level all around us, we savoured our surrounding and began the fourth and final pitch to the summit of Cnoc na Mara.  

Climbers at top of Pitch 3

 The final ridge climb to the summit is the money shot, it's 58m long and climbs a knife edge ridge with 100m vertical drops either side of you as you ascend over the towers to the pin point summit of this outstanding sea stack. We made made our way carefully to the summit and with a high five, Steve was standing on the summit block and Dell was taking the shot from her lofty perch on the clifftops high above us. 

Steve on the summit ridge

On the summit of Cnoc na Mara

View from the summit looking South

 The descent from the summit back to sea level is an involved affair and involves two abseils and a great deal of guile and care. 

Abseil down the summit ridge

Abseil to sea level

 And so, once back to sea level we made the return sea passage to once more stand on the storm beach at the entrance to Shambhala. 

 This had been Steve's first sea stack climb and it is safe to say it won't be his last! :-)

Cnoc na Mara in the evening sun

 Below is a film shot on Cnoc na Mara last year with quite a large number of Irish climbers making the first mass ascent of the landward ridge of the stack.

Cnoc na Mara film shot last year