Access To Newtyle. 16th September 2017.
There is currently active quarrying taking place at Newtyle. Doorjamb Slab and Beginners Slab are currently unaffected. Access to Happy Hooker Wall is extremely lose and unpleasant, and only has a small platform remaining (with some large lose embedded boulders) at the base of the wall, with potential difficulty in swinging back into the platform from a lower-off. The path from Happy Hooker under Pantile Slab and Main Slab doesn’t exist anymore. You can still access The Tube, but only by going up the boulder field at the back of the quarry workings.
We have been in contact with the company doing the extraction on behalf of the landowner, and are currently trying to get an on-site meeting with the Director of the company. Currently, the company have confirmed that: 1) they are actively working the quarry; 2) access is still allowed but ask that anyone visiting asks permission of anyone working on site; 3) they will be putting up fences/barriers at some stage in the future.
Hopefully our meeting will be before they put fences up and we can agree a more formalised access agreement.
In the meantime, and in the absence of any fences/barriers, please follow these 5 simple steps:
1. Continue to park very sensitively on Dean’s Park – please please please car share from one of the two main carparks in Dunkeld (the local residents on Deans Park have been really supportive of climbers, and proactive in their desire to not see the site developed); 2. Only access the site as most folk currently do, ie up the wee path from near the entrance to Deans Park then skirt left around the new levelled area; 3. Under no circumstances take vehicles up the now upgraded old access; 4. If challenged on the site, be super-polite, find out the name of the person you’re talking to, ideally walk away, and let me and/or Mountaineering Scotland know what happened; 5 – continue to enjoy one of Scotland’s most diverse climbing venues.
Cheers, Simon Yearsley
