Galloway Sea Cliffs, Miekle Ross

To make up for the disappointment of not going to Pembroke and enjoying the fantastic weather (thanks again Met Office :angry: ), after much “Where shall we go?”, Ben and I headed out west of Dumfries to Miekle Ross…

What do you mean you’ve never heard of it? Okay, fair enough, nor had I, but Ben had been before and after carefully covering himself by saying I shouldn’t expect too much, we committed ourselves to some sea cliff esoterica to escape the Lakes’ bank holiday crowds.

What a spot. Tramping through lush pasture overlooking the bay, with it’s protective lighthouse and a small scooner heading out to sea, I didn’t really care what the climbing was like – I felt like I was on holiday and it was a good feeling.

Sensibly, we started in the most popular area, Little Zawn, and rattled off the three star VS, HVS and E1 without too much excitement, despite me bringing two right feet! At least I remembered ‘some’ boots this time?! 😳 (again!)

Despite it’s remoteness, we had company of sorts in the form of a trio of private fishing boats. They seemed moderately puzzled by our exploits, but looked to be having a good day reeling in sizeable fish on a regular basis.

We moved ’round to Limehouse Blues Cliff by way of a sketchy sea level traverse, not difficult but ‘interesting’ given the nature of our location. Here, the rock took on more of an exploratory feel, with a liberal covering of green hair and yellow lichen. The flowers made up for it though, no idea what they were but thay had a really strong, sweet fragrance. :yum:

Ben set off up the HVS, ‘Dogleg’, but the higher he got, the more it rained greenery! The rock was pretty sound and the gear reasonable, so no real drama, but a bit more fun than your usual HVS.

We finished off at Red Slab, with the E1, ‘Scared to Dance’. Much cleaner rock here and good incut holds, but limited and spaced gear. All good fun with two right feet!

A great location to get away from it all and some good climbing too. I have to say it does need more traffic, but, unlike the unused Lakes crags, you can still have a great day out as it’s dry and just brushes off. I’ll certainly be going back! Any takers?