UKC

We have added two major venues to Peak Bouldering on Rockfax Digital plus the smaller venue of Bitholmes Wood. The Stones and the Abbey are superb popular crags offering hard limestone bouldering. Up until now, both venues have had only limited coverage in print and online. Thanks to Dave Parry and Mike Adams for the information.

Access is sensitive for both the eastern crags however it has continued for the most part and good progress has been made recently, especially for the Stones. Please use the shortened names in your replies.

Alan

Thanks to everyone involved. These crags have been lacking a proper topo forever.

Very cool. I’ve been wondering about Anston in particular. Thanks team. 

Edit the name to The Stones! Lol. It's to prevent unwanted googling causing access issues 😉

Soz. Too late to edit now 😬

As a chossy mag lime aficionado it's nice to see some proper topos, (my scrumpled a4 hand me down for the Abbey is nearing the end of its life) although I'm sort of worried these crags will go the same way as Wright's rock after the Churnet guide was published. Tread lightly folks...

Hadn't Wright's been in at least 2 bouldering guidebooks before the Churnet guide was published (the Vertebrate one and the Rockfax one)?

I haven't read the access notes for these new crags in the app yet and I am not 100% sure if they are the ones I am thinking of, but if it is, hopefully people respect the sensitive access.

Also, if UKC ever wanted to showcase a Sheffield clique in action this is the single best example I have ever seen.

Ha, I wish I was part of the Sheffield clique, if I were I wouldn't be seen dead in these greasy choss holes! But yes, yor right, the Churnet guide wasn't a great example my point was its a place that has gone from a esoteric back water to a very busy area in a few years whitch has caused access issues. This has allready happened recently at the stones at apprentice wall, where if people were a bit more discrete problems might have been avoided.  I'm all for people enjoying these venues but it's worth emphasising we unfortunately have no rights to access them and discretion is required.

I have never been to Wright's on a busy day of the 3 or 4 occasions I visited (before current access issues) so I never saw the increase in issues.

I climbed on the bit you mentioned years ago with some friends from uni, looking back it seems pretty stupid, people at track height and moving rail vehicles generally shouldn't mix (they do in Depots, but drivers expect people to be moving about and people know to acknowledge that they have seen the train and are standing clear). I am surprised that the track wasn't fenced off through the woods years ago.

The main issue at Wright's was not change in usage patterns, it was change in ownership.

The access situation at Wright's is very different to The Stones. Wright's has an access ambivalent private owner living almost directly beneath the crag at a distance where any noise is heard. The Stones is owned by the Parish Council who have agreed conditions around which they are fine with climbing continuing. These are much less onerous than the rules at Wright's.