UKC

Hi,

Has anyone checked out this wee crag for bouldering ?

Craigie Hill near South Queensferry.

https://www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/geological-site/craigie-hill/

And this one (on climbing crag map of UKClimbing).

Torphin Quarry - near Balerno http://www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/geological-site/torphin-quarry/

I sourced both off the Geological map around Edinburgh.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1NzbihSekeC2OdJ36R-bBJGct2r0&l...

Thanks

There are usually very good reasons that obvious crags near large population centres don't have any recorded routes: rubbish dangerous rock and/or access issues. By all means go and have a closer look at these places, but be prepared to be disappointed!  

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1306427

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5012630

Too late for Craigie Hill quarry, it's currently being infilled. 

Go and have a look. I think you'll be able to see why it's not a popular venue ...

Given that it's on the crag map, did you check out the linked log book entry for Torphin Quarry?

https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/torphin_quarry-29987/

Doesn't make it sound particularly inviting.

I actually asked about Torphin Quarry myself 18 years ago (give or take a week or two).  The response was not encouraging then, either:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rock_talk/torphin_quarry-131661

One thing in its favour: if you want to take a look yourself, you can get the number 16 bus to within about half a mile of the point along the track to Easter Kinleith where you can/could get over the fence.  (I wouldn't try strolling in past the Tiphereth centre, which AFAIK still sort-of occupies some of the eastern part of the quarry floor with its compost-making operation and which may feel a bit proprietorial over access that way.)

Basically, though, given the relatively straightforward access from a city with quite probably a higher than average proportion of climbers amongst its population (not forgetting the student population attending the four universities in the city) I think it's fairly safe to say that Torphin Quarry has to date not been so much ignored as explored and dismissed - i.e. pretty much what Mark Bull said in the first reply to your OP.

When I lived in Edinburgh, I pretty much went to every single grotty piece of garbage so much as recorded as existing in the Lowland Outcrops area between about Berwick and Greenock (though I didn't get to all the Galloway hills and sea cliffs places - hard to justify the 3 hour drive when a 3 hour drive in the other direction would get you to the Cairngorms, Ben Nevis or numberous other places). And I can tell you that in the central belt, even if it's absolutely garbage or full on illegal (see also Castle Rock), there are recorded lines on it, usually from absolutely ages ago too. So even without physically having visited the two places you linked, I would be nothing short of astonished if they yielded anything beyond a nice grassy area for a picnic.