UKC

What’s the situation at Hoghton quarry.?

Greatest prank of the century. Almost everyone's in on it. Just keep perpetuating this myth that it's the best crag in the world ever full of must do routes, and nobody will get upset.

If you waste a day of your life to go and check it out, then come back here and tell the truth that it's a shitty, dank, overgrown, green, slimy, minging, midgy hole in the ground that's only climbable with the services of a time machine, you'll get a ton of downvotes.

There’s no access right now. The delicate access arrangement is on hold after climbers busted the locked gate open. https://www.thebmc.co.uk/modules/rad/view.aspx?id=203

I kind of agree. It wasn't as bad as you describe back in the 80s when I climbed there and Mandarin is/was particularly good but I was young and impressionable and every route was the best ever then.

Hoghton is Lancashire's very own Range West, good but not as good as the reputation it gets from its mythical status. 

Might be broader than that. In the last 40 years I can’t remember the answer to ‘what are we doing this weekend’ being ‘Lancashire Quarries youth!’ 😂😂

I remember doing a route there back in the early 70's.  I think it was called Mandarin.  It featured on the front cover of a magazine and it was very good.  Nothing else there looked very appealing at the time.

Climbers ?

They can't be very good climbers if they couldn't climb over the gate.

I had a look around Hoghton in the early 90's, not climbing, just a gander to see what it was like - the best routes were all above my pay grade.

My impressions were that if most of the trees were cut down and there was access for a significant part of the year (not just 2 months), then it could become a great venue. But without that, would it be worth the effort (cleaning, etc) to climb there.

Having said that, Mandarin does look like a great climb, but it would need sufficient traffic to stay clean and at the moment there's no likelihood of that - so nearly everyone goes elsewhere. 

Does anyone know the reasonings given behind access being so limited?
 

Only parts of certain days in just 3 months a year, most of which overlap with bird bans, it’s almost like they don’t want climbers there at all. I often think a full ban like at some other crags would be better than this very restrictive arrangement…

They breed pheasants there IIRC, so they want least disturbance so that it maximises the number that can be blasted out of the sky by people prepared to pay lots of £ - I think that's probably the major income for the Hoghton Tower estate. So even if (like me) you don't like the idea of shooting, it's at least understandable why the restriction is there.

This lack of disturbance makes it a better location for Peregrines, which of course means further restrictions - although I don't think the previous agreed access was during breeding season anyway even pre-Peregrine.

Not a lot really that can be done about it, in this venue, we (climbers) have to take whatever we can get.

Any rich climbers out there fancy buying Hoghton Tower and changing its modus operandi?

I've been in several times and not once have I seen any evidence of pheasant rearing so I think this is probably something that the owners say to keep people away. Also with birds of prey nesting, wouldnt they predate on the young birds?

As for the routes Mandarin and Rhododendron stay pretty clean as they stand out a little whilst the slabbier walls ( Boadicea ) gets pretty green and mossy.

Peregrines don’t hunt on the ground.

this depends entirely on your definition of reasonable.

It was a long time ago that I went there, and there was evidence of pheasant breeding then; I'd assumed that this was still going on but presumably your visits are significantly more recent.

I said understandable, reasonable is much more subjective. But from what petegunn says it sounds like the pheasants are irrelevant anyway.

Um... do we know it was climbers? That's an accusation of criminal damage that I wouldn't want to wave around blindly...

The BMC's negotiating of Houghton reminds me of my union's negotiation of a 1.3% so-called "payrise" in a year of 9% inflation... No wonder there is talk of a coordinated trespass...

Perhaps I should have recommend you Causey Arch for your trip up north!

As relayed at recent BMC meeting by access rep, I understand they were caught at it. I’m just a humble messenger, no ammo required.

Ah... well... I see!

I've been dying to go there since I saw the Railway Architectures programme on Yesterday recently, and the heritage rail line too.