In reply to Jack Frost:
> famous
> adjective
> 1. known about by many people.
> "a famous star"
> synonyms: well known, celebrated, prominent, famed, popular, having made a name for oneself
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> After the BBC's groundbreaking three night outside broadcast "The Great Climb" in 1967 which was watched by 15million viewers, the most famous climb in Britain has to be the Old Man of Hoy. Ask any non-climber and they will likely know about the Old Man of Hoy.
Which is why my original post specifically referred to climbing opinion and not 'Joe Public'!
Indian Face is a good suggestion but hardly attainable by many climbers even if standards have rocketed in the last 40 years.
Dream of White Horses is obviously a 'must do' route on many climbers' itinerary.
As others have noted Scafell Flake has lost it's chock-stone so the climbing is very different to the original ascent. But Kipling is a possible.
As for north of the border, the Cuillin Ridge is certainly a famous mountaineering route, but not really a climb as such, that is aside from one pitch up the Inn Pin. The 'Old Man' is certainly very well known by public and climbers alike. Unfortunately being quite hard of access/remoteness and weather dependent, is off the list of most southern based climbers. For me Scottish pride suggests it would have to be some classic by Robin Smith as Centurion was climbed by a Sassenach
Just to finish on a more humorous note, i was climbing with a youngster of 21 who was attaining 8a indoors. As we roped up at the foot of Central Groove (Dewerstone) I remarked that he should be getting to grips with those classics on the Cenotaph Walls. The blank look said it all. He hadn't even heard of Cenotaph Corner!
But I feel much as Gordon above and any if not all the routes on these walls are top classics if some are only do-able by the very talented/strong.
Post edited at 14:31