Climbs 73
Rocktype Limestone
Altitude Tidal
Faces NW
Catching the light © jethro kiernan
The Diamond is the magnificent sweep of high quality limestone which arcs up dramatically from the rocky shores of the Little Orme. This is an impressive cliff - quite simply, the best hard sport cliff in Wales, one of the best in Britain and, according to some globe-trotting superstars, world class. The best routes here stand up with the best of their grade anywhere.
Nothing is more likely to put off visitors to a potentially brilliant cliff than consistently poor conditions, and The Diamond can be such a place. The cliff faces northwest and receives sun from about 4pm in August - when it's a truly magical place to be with the evening sun reflecting off the bay and lighting up the cliff with a golden glow. The best conditions available to climbers are during late July, August and September. Conditions are best from midday and early evening when the air temperature is highest and dew-point is lowest.
Park at the Craigside Inn or on one of the side roads nearby. Hop over the gate opposite and follow a path leftwards through the trees, paralleling the road, to a meadow. Continue across the meadow, cross a low fence and go towards the cliff edge. Drop down a shallow grassy gully below Craig y Don Upper and follow a path around to the right (facing out) to a resin bolt abseil point with in-situ rope (5 mins to here). Abseil from here to the handline, which leads around the cliff into The Diamond.
The cliff is tidal and access is possible from approx 2.5 hours after high tide until 2.5 hours before the next high. You might get up to 30 minutes extra on neap tides and 30 minutes less on springs, thereby giving a window of about 8 hours.
USER ATTENTION
Climbing can start early on the Diamond this year. All the birds nesting on the Diamond itself have fledged. There are still Cormorants above, please don't disturb any nesting birds if you come across them.
from 24/07/2023 to 15/08/2023
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