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Tour Of Ireland

Kieranl

8-May-2011
3:09:09 AM

A week and a bit into Ireland and with only 3 days left.
No photos as I barely made the trip, tweaking my back 3 days before flying out. Luckily it settled but my bag got ruthlessly pruned of stuff including camera. Threw harness and boots in at last minute just in case.
Weather was perfect for the first week, I even got sunburnt.
Windy Gap, near Dundalk, north of Dublin. Sharp bouldering on gabbro. It was windy and I was alone and landings were bad so just walked.
Dunmore Head, Culdaff, far north. Some easy dolerite just above the sea. The Comcille Climbfest was on so I just walked up to the cliff and asked if I could second anything. Martin was taking his daughter up her first climbs since a few years off for having babies and let me tag along. My back held up well which was good.
Dunowen, Culdaff. A little turret of rock sitting on a shelf above the sea. Sat for ages watching Alex, a russian studying in Belfast, fight his way up the lefthand HVS. Followed him and Kevin Kilroy up it then spent another age watching Kevin do the 2nd ascent of an E4 just to the right. Decided not to subject my back to the weird twisty bridging up the lower groove.
Polldoo Glen, bouldering, fine-grained granite in a remote glen. Luckily, at the end of three weeks of fine weather the short but boggy approach was fairly dry. Also it was windy which kept the midges away. As I was alone and had left my mobile phone behind I was extremely conservative and did 1 nice easy problem. Definitely worth a visit if you're coming to Ireland.

Kieranl

8-May-2011
3:25:13 AM

This morning it was Doolin in the Burren area of Clare. Limestone bouldering in a tidal area. Got a bit lost on the way there as the guide says to take the road south out of the village whereas you take the road north from the village. Finally worked out that out.
Again I was alone but this had a few easy things with good, if hard landings. Without a pad I didn't want to jump off anything anyway. The tide was far enough down for rogue waves being unlikely to reach the shelf I was on but I kept one eye out. I chose not to climb on the Reardon Memorial Wall or the areas right of it because they looked a bit riskier. Despite it being cold, blustery morning with a bit of rain, the area was quite sheltered and the rock dry.
Tomorrow, on the swing back to Dublin, hope to get some stuff done at Glendalough, Ireland's most developed bouldering area.

Kieranl

10-May-2011
7:18:34 AM

Despite good Irish weather, frequent showers, managed to get in a few hours at Glendalough over the last two days.
As Ireland's premier bouldering area and only an hour from Dublin I expected to find a few people bouldering there on a Sunday afternoon. Well, there were shedloads of them of all shapes and sizes wandering up and down the glen but not a pad person in sight.
The bouldering itself is on fine-grained granite, mostly just beside the track. I stuck to the beginners circuit, which proved a good move, lots of slabs and aretes. The biggest drawback was the proximity to the popular walking track which meant there was TP behind very rock and a fair bit of broken glass in one area. The harder problems looked quite good but even the font 5 problems seemed ridculously hard at my current fitness level.
A few local boulderers turned up after I got there including one guy with a pair of crutches sticking out the top of his pad. He wasn't expecting to break his ankle but was carrying for a mate who was on his bike with foot in an orthopedic boot.
Tomorrow back to Dublin and plane on Wednesday..

kieranl

16-May-2011
4:51:36 PM

OK, so that was as boring as anything without any photos so here's a few links to sites with some photos of some areas that I visited.
Bouldering at Glendalough. Nice granite bouldering near Dublin.
Bouldering at Doolin seaside limestone. The problems can change, or disappear entirely after large storms.
Ireland bouldering article from UK Climbing includes a shot of the Echo boulder at Polldoo

tenantfile

31-May-2011
9:25:37 PM

Can you please send me some more details about ireland. Some nice pics also.

kieranl

31-May-2011
9:38:39 PM

On 31/05/2011 tenantfile wrote:
>Can you please send me some more details about ireland. Some nice pics
>also.

Where shall I start?
Ireland is a large island off the west coast of England.
In Australian terms it has only recently been settled by humans, some 6,000 years or so ago after the last ice age.

As far as climbing goes I can't really add anything much to what is already in this thread as I was only there for a couple of weeks and did less than a handful of climbs and a few days bouldering. I have no nice pics - the shots from my old phone aren't worth reproducing.
Have a look at some of the links in the previous posts.
Good place when it's not raining. Not a world-class climbing destination but there is quite a lot of good climbing if you're going there. If Font is getting a bit hot it could be worth visiting for bouldering if you can get a cheap fare from Paris to Dublin. Glendalough is only 60-70 km from Dublin, accessible by bus I believe, and there is a hostel 40 minutes easy walk from the boulders.

kieranl

10-Feb-2013
10:27:11 PM

Completely OT, but when I was in Ireland 2 years ago I stayed in a place called Carrickmacross and saw this business, which seems to have an assured clientele.

Photo source is http://martinettravel.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/photo-of-day-from-carrickmacross.html

ademmert

11-Feb-2013
12:26:51 PM

On 10/04/2011 trog wrote:
>Fairhead looks good... not from personal experience only seen it in videos.
>
>
>In the North though
>
>http://www.fairheadclimbers.com/

Fairhead is awesome!!
Although you want to go on a nice day as it is north facing!!

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