Fairhead

‘Fairhead has the greatest expanse of climbable rock in the UK.’  Not many people know that, as Fairhead lies on the north east coast of Northern Ireland, away from the mainstream of British climbing, and sees few visitors from this side of the Irish Sea.  In fact it is one of only three major crags in the world where Steve Newman hasn’t climbed.

It wasn’t too hard to persuade a few other veterans that a visit was overdue, and so Steve, Stewart Walker, Paul Rigg and I booked flights and accommodation for a week in June.  A morning flight from Southampton to Belfast’s George Best airport was about as painless as air travel can be these days, and after a short drive we were having lunch in a café in the seaside town of Ballycastle with a view of the crag from the front door.

It was a rather damp day, but ‘time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted’, according to the Major, so we went to have a look at the crag.  The approach past farms and over rolling moorland takes you to the top of the cliff and gives no hint of what lies beyond.  It’s a crag by the sea rather than a sea cliff, as the base of the crag is about 100 metres above the sea on top of a steep slope of man-eating boulders, with a superb outlook over the Antrim coast, the small island of Rathlin and across to Scotland where the Mull of Kintyre is surprisingly close and the islands of Islay and Jura provide a distant backdrop.

We wandered along the rim, stopping occasionally to peer rather gingerly over the top, then scrambled down a gully to view the crag from below. Wow!  This was certainly like nothing we had seen before, over two miles long and up to a hundred metres high, gloomy, north facing and formidably steep.  If this is the greatest expanse of climbable rock in the UK, then your definition of ‘climbable’ must include the ability to lead E5.

Fortunately for us lesser mortals, the western end of the crag is more friendly, with routes from 30 to 70 metres, easy access, afternoon sunshine and a shed load of classics from VS to E1 on the Prow and around the Ballycastle descent gully. It may be ‘Fairhead lite’ compared with the sterner stuff on the central section of the crag (you’ll have to ask Scott about that), but it still provided us with several days of superb climbing.

Next morning we were back to try our luck on the Prow and the obvious place to start was The Black Thief, a single pitch VS and the easiest route in the graded list.  It was a bit of a shock to find that this was no mild VS stroll but 30 metres of continuously steep 4c climbing, like three gritstone VSs on top of one another.  Next came The Fence, improbably steep and described in the guide as ‘a VS that thinks it’s an HVS’.  We thought so too.

Those two routes showed us what Fairhead climbing is all about. The grades are tough and the climbs are steep and remarkably sustained, but the rock is impeccable and runners can be placed almost at will.

After lunch Paul and I did Girona, a wonderful VS with a spectacular top pitch, stepping off a pinnacle for some very exposed mantelshelf moves, and then returned to the top of the Prow where Steve and Stewart were completing Fireball (E1).  They seemed to have found this good value, although Stewart appeared to have had more trouble getting the gear out than climbing the route.  We counted the runners – 18 in a 35 metre pitch.  Fairhead climbing is described as having ‘gear on demand’, and it seemed that Steve was out to prove it.

Steve and Stewart on Girona

After that day the Major was unfortunately jinxed by the World Cup injury curse and was hors-de-combat, so with a team of three a change of tactics was called for.  Steve decided that he would go first on the E1s, and that Stewart and I would have to lead on anything easier.  We didn’t dare to argue.

The new plan was soon put to the test on the classic HVS of the crag, Hell’s Kitchen. (Nothing to do with reality TV, this is one of the earliest routes at Fairhead, first climbed in the early1970s when Gordon Ramsay was still in nappies).  It follows a huge open- book corner with two long 5a pitches, rising for over 60 metres to a very steep finale.  Stewart led us up the first pitch, with some tough moves on the left wall to get into the corner proper, and then I was sent up the top pitch, weighed down with enough gear to open a shop and determined to use most of it.

At first things went quite smoothly; the runners slotted in with gratifying regularity and as the corner steepened I was able to stay in balance by following the instructions from below to ‘do that crazy stemming, man!’ until just below the top, bridged out in a wild position below a bulge, I contemplated a precarious step up at exactly the point where the crack went blind and the runners were well below my feet rather than above my head.  So much for gear on demand.

It seemed obvious what to do – bridge out with the right foot on a tiny smear, move the left foot up onto a good hold above the bulge and stretch up to reach a pocket, but every time I tried it I could feel my foot slip on the lichenous rock and the hand holds were poor crimps that did not feel very secure. While I procrastinated the other two were passing the time by calling the odds on the outcome. After a quarter of an hour we had

            Retreat             6 to 4 on favourite

            Success            2 to 1

            Leader fall        10 to 1

and the substitute was warming up, but then I tried a different tactic, making a high step up without using the smear. It worked!  I grabbed the pocket and quickly slotted in yet another runner in to restore equilibrium. A few VS moves later and I was on top in the sunshine.  The others soon joined me and after enjoying the buzz following a great route we sorted the gear.  19 runners and a new record.

Steve, Stewart and me after Hells Kitchen

But Steve doesn’t know the meaning of defeat. We moved over to the Prow in the afternoon sunshine and Steve set off up Midnight Cruiser (E1), yet another 3 star route.  I was hanging on a rope taking photos but I couldn’t help noticing that it was not exactly a cruise and a lot of gear was being placed.  This was another tremendous route, almost 40 metres of steep and sustained climbing where virtually every move was 5a or 5b, with the crux right at the top.  After Stewart and I had been dragged up we counted the runners - 21!  Steve had his record back and we could go home happy.

Steve on Midnight Cruiser

The 21 runners Steve used on Midnight Cruiser

As well as the climbing I thoroughly enjoyed my first visit to Northern Ireland.  The coastal scenery was spectacular, the locals were very friendly and we enjoyed a rest day visiting Derry and sampling the wares at the nearby Bushmills distillery.  If you fancy a visit to Fairhead then find a tame E1 leader, keep doing the pull-ups, buy lots of cams and have a look at the excellent website www.fairheadclimbers.com where you will find both inspiration and plenty of useful advice.