UKC

Climbs 38
Rocktype Rhyolite
Altitude 450m a.s.l
Faces W

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Burnsie in charge of some Uncertain Emotions at Tunnel Wall © Fraser

Crag features

A brilliant crag with a huge and steep rock wall on the west flank of Stob Coire na Tulachain on Buachaille Etive Mor.

Tunnel Wall is the steep, smooth, rhyolite, red wall within the larger crag of Creag a' Bhanchair. Whilst Bhancair has some excellent trad routes, including the Extreme Rock Highlands classic 'Carnivore' (John Cunningham and Mick Noon, 1958 and a direct finish by Don Whillans in 1962) Tunnel Wall itself is that rarest of things in the UK - a mountain sport climbing crag...and a blooming good one at that!

First bolted by Dave Cuthbertson in the mid 80's, Tunnel Wall has never become super popular. The crags location at the head of Glen Coe enures it receives it's fair share of 'West Coast' weather and pick a dampish and still evening in August and you will share the crag with a million midges. However, Tunnel Wall is often sheltered from the worst of the weather out on the coast, receives a good deal of afternoon end evening sun and frequently has a breeze to keep the late summer midges away.

Not only that but the climbing is superb - steep (gently overhanging), sustained and fairly fingery with some big pitches, generally requiring a 60m rope. The big 5 sport routes; Uncertain Emotions (7b), The Railway Chilldren (7c), Tribeswoman (7c+), Fated Path (7c+) and Admission (7c+) are all now re-bolted to equiped lower offs. They are all given FOUR or three stars in the new Glen Coe guide.

Two superb new routes, not in the guide, were put up by Dave Macleod in early summer 2005. "The left-hand line, The Third Eye (7c) provided a slightly softer option than the line up of 7c+s on this wall. Just to the right, Axiom turned out to be rather more challenging with a hard and devious crux section. Its initial grade of 7c+ was thought to be a little harsh by Dave Birkett who made the second ascent, thinking it was more like 8a." (Dave Macleod).

So there's plenty to go at!

It's worth taking a clip stick as the first bolt on some of the routes is rather high - and above the crux in the case of Tribeswoman!

Approach notes

From Lagangarbh follow the path up into Coire na Tulaich and on the west side scramble up to the crag before the scree slopes.

Celtic Dawn cleaned 07/14 as 1st pitch to new route above.Peg no longer exists but good small wires in same slot.
smally - 08/Jul/14
Romantic Reality with Carnivore Direct start cleaned 06/14.
smally - 25/Jun/14
I've added two climbs to this crag which are on Creag na Tulaich which is set just up from Creag a' Bhancair. There are not many routes at this crag but and it is very nearby hence I decided not to create a new entry for the crag in the database. The routes are well worth the walk up the hill.
gforce - 19/May/08
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Climbs at this crag

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