UKC

Rob Greenwood takes a look at the jewel in the crown of Irish rock climbing: Ailladie. A limestone paradise littered with cracks, classics, and an ambiance that is hard to match.

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In reply to UKC Articles:

Important point that most of the routes on Mirror Wall aren't currently accessible from the ground (or should that be 'seabed'...), and that the guidebook doesn't make this clear. We lost some precious low tide time learning this a couple of weeks ago. Worth lining up one of the big tidal boulders with the start of your route, looking from one of the promontories to either side, to figure out where to throw your abseil rope.

In reply to Andy Moles:

"Through the looking glass", "On reflection" and "The Ramp" can be started from the ground at low tide. The rest we found the best way to go about was to have someone looking across from Aran wall pointing you where to drop the rope, though sometimes is tricky to recognise the features that you are aiming for.

In reply to UKC Articles:

The river hostel in Doolin has great camping for 10 euros. You get to cook in the hostel with free tea, coffee and milk and s nice warm fire

In reply to mark hounslea: Great article, well done ! One small thing though, 'apparently' the start of Black Magic was washed away in 2014/2015 and it's now around E2 5b and not HVS.

In reply to UKC Articles:
Good article.

Rich as Alex Huber, brilliant! (typo in the surname though - should be Kendrick)

In reply to Misha:

The resemblance was uncanny

My error regarding the surname, that's now been updated.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Thanks for the article Rob. Very interesting and informative. It looks like a cracking destination. Just one issue with it........"British Isles"....you may want to ask your Irish friends what they think about using that term in reference to the Irish Republic. I naively said that to my wife (who BTW is Irish) years back and am still feeling the swell from the wave unleashed!

In reply to Geowomble:

Perhaps the swell needs to subside...

I'm as Irish as a sod of turf and don't have the faintest problem with the British Isles.

When I was a child, my granny in Sligo used to send letters to my mum in Belfast marked 'Occupied Ireland'! Would have gone down well (not!) with the postman and our neighbours who were all of a decidedly different political persuasion.

Although I'm all for celebrating cultural identity, I let go of the political divisiveness 45 years ago. Some of my former companions who embraced divisiveness did dreadful damage for no good at all. And this is all I'll say on the subject.

Brilliant article!

Mick

In reply to Geowomble:
Funnily enough I thought about this a lot whilst writing the article.

I have always viewed the term 'British Isles' as a non-political entity, referring to an area of land as opposed to anything more sovereign; however, I am aware this is very much the perspective of someone who was born and raised in England (i.e. I am very much guilty of certain beliefs and assumptions associated with that upbringing) and that 'UK and Ireland' would probably have been more appropriate.

Hopefully these references didn't dilute what I'd tried to express within the article, which is that the crag's identity, ambience, and feel is most definitely Irish. The references to the British Isle - or UK and Ireland - were mostly just to remind people that Ireland is only a short distance away, something (I think) it's quite easy for people from England, Scotland, and Wales to forget (and I say this from a personal perspective, as it took me years to finally get over there!).

In reply to Geowomble:
Which set of islands does she think she belongs to?

In reply to UKC Articles:

Great article, one of the best destination pieces I've read on UKC, definitely now firmly on the wishlist.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Interesting article. Having spent a few days there a few years back, I would say I was slightly underwhelmed at my grade (this is probably because I'd heard the place being hyped to Pembroke levels, in retrospect - its not Pembroke). I only really remember doing one what I'd call stand out HVS climb on Mirror Wall. Same with other crags we tried in the Burren - lots of quite loose and/or snappy rock and little in the way of quality routes. So from a purely climbing perspective, my least favourite of the 'big' Irish venues I've visited. But then again, you are in Doolin, so climbing isn't the whole story by a long mark.

In reply to UKC Articles:

"Arran Wall
The Arran Wall is the first of the jaw-dropping sectors,"

It would indeed be jaw dropping if you could see Arran from there.

Aran, methinks.

In reply to Chris Harris:

Ooops, my mistake - that's now been corrected.

That said, irrespective of how you spell it I still maintain the wall is jaw-dropping!

In reply to UKC Articles:

It is a great venue and a lovely part of the the world. We had a week there years back, loved the atmosphere, the locals, the pubs and music, and the climbing - of course,


Chris

In reply to Rob Greenwood - UKClimbing:

Great article. British Isles does irk me to an unreasonable degree and it does commonly get that reaction in Ireland due to it historic meaning. Its why the term is not used in any official capacity by either the Irish or UK governments.

Still great article, it didn't detract from that.