Compared to my recent travels, I could hardly claim to be travelling light on this expedition, as I waited outside The Cottage for my lift to arrive.
After a pleasant crossing from Holyhead to Dublin, we travelled an hour north in the minibus to stay the night at Loughcrew where there is a 5000 year old megalithic site of cairns, rock art and burial chambers - as well as a very nice campsite!
The next day, we continued travelling north to Donegal. It was strange to see British signs and suddenly need sterling currency as we passed briefing into and then back out of ‘Northern Ireland’. As the roads grew smaller and less busy we knew we must be nearing Donegal - our target destination for this rock climbing expedition. As a challenge, to keep for losing a skill, we navigated the whole way using a road map rather than google maps, which was actually rather fun!
After getting into the bunkhouse and cooking dinner, there was just time to walk along the harbour wall at Burtonport in the last of the light.
Today (Friday), we drove onto nearby Cruit Island, which (in these conditions at least), is absolutely stunning.
The climbs were on perfect golden granite. They were not super big, but the situation and ambiance was about as good as it could be. It felt like the long drive had been justified, as we finally got the ropes out after a morning swim.
There were climbs of all grades to suit all of the group members today. A fine start to the climbing part of the expedition.
It’s probably not that often around here that it becomes too hot to climb, but at around 4pm, we all decided it was, and so dived off the rocks into the cooling waters!
Once again, we thought we ought watch the sunset, this time for a little beach just north of Burton Port.
Cruit Island Climbs:
- Scramble Route, Diff
- Raising Sand, S (4b)
- Bren’s Brunch, S (4b)
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