UKC

Two years back I was down in Portland, had a lovely time in The Cuttings sadly cut short by some rain. Afterwards we attempted to take a look at the Battleship area to plan future trips, but couldn’t for the life of us work out how to get down there!! (I feel like we must have missed something obvious, since I’ve not heard of anyone else having similar issues.) I know from Facebook the Dorset Bolt Fund had done some fantastic work on paths over there but they someone eluded us.

Planning a trip to Battleship / Veranda area next weekend, so thought I’d ask for access tips before we head down there in case we have trouble again.

The guide in the UKC logbook  Battleship Edge says: "From the first traffic-calming installation, pick up a fenced path that heads towards the cliff-top. At the junction with the cliff-top path, head slightly rightwards, and then take one of two steep paths down the hillside. The Battleship Edge is on the left."

To me it sounds like there should be a way down in the red circle here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Wz5eD3ANqSrJkpFo9

But we couldn’t find that when we were there in 2017. Any recent visitors got any tips? I had a look at the photos of the path in Battleship gully from and wondered if that’s a little further South than this…

Thanks!

Further south. Follow the path from the first traffic narrowing, walk south, maybe 100 yards, but it's a pretty obvious path on the slope these days with wooden steps once you get a little way down...

Sadly, the original descent path to Battleship slid away during the winter storms just after the Rockfax guide was published.

There are now three descent routes further south. As AJM says, the new paths are becoming more obvious as they get more usage.

Have a good time. 

Park in the climbers car park and head off along the coast (keeping sea to right!).

After 10/15 min you'll see a path with some rope leading down, get to bottom and walk with sea to your left, veranda is almost immediately below you, you just walk above (you'll see lower off bolts) then cut back down, battleship is just a bit further on - easy peasy

The roped path down is further south than the red circle, just a tad past the veranda

The Dorset bouldering guide has the up to date walk in, 100 meters before the path which goes past the farm house is one of the walk-ins. not as steep as the one further north, so better for pads.

Access to Battleship is via the new steps - look for 2 staples in the huge blocks next to the coast footpath(about 50m south of the old descent). Once you find the staples  the descent path is directly behind you.

The Veranda footpath is further south - there are 5 boulders in a semi-circle on the west side of the path (the only boulders west of the path) - the descent gully is 10m south of these.

Rob