Chilling at Craigmaddie.

More Scottish summer! A quick dash slow grind out of the city for an evening deposited us at Craigmaddie. I'd been put off going there by the description of it being sandy gritstone, envisaging coarse granular crustiness that would shred my tips especially on a warm evening. Is it like grit?? Is it bollox!! It's a sandstone, almost identical to North York Moors (and bits of T' County), and nothing like Pennine grit. Which made for a surprisingly pleasant circuit even in the mellow sunshine.

I only went to the upper left wall but really enjoyed the fine location, excellent landings, nice rock, and good cranky problems. Typically the guide and online topo are confusing and seem to describe lots of things apart from the obvious natural problem lines. Thankfully they don't take much working out, and this edited topo should help.


1. The Mantle V3 - Good.
2. Left Crack V1 - Nice.
3. ??? V3? - Eliminate up right crack?
4. ??? V2 - Pull on at obvious jugs, reach up to RH crimp and adjacent LH hold, heel hook to top. Good.
5. ??? V4 - Pull on at LH ripple and RH crack pinch, pull up to small flat crimps and direct up to apex. Excellent.
6. ??? V4 - Pull on at LH crack slot and RH large crack, high RF then compress directly up to better holds and final reach. Very good.
7. Lip Traverse V? - Hang nose slopers and use various holds to get into corner crack?

I'm not really sure how these relate to:

Right Crack - doesn't seem to follow the crack and there doesn't seem to be a RH sidepull.
Flake Wall - doesn't seem to have a natural flake to start on nor a sharp crimp you'd gain with LH, nor a dyno. Could be a good link between 4 and 5?
Undercut Crack - doesn't relate to line but does fit the description of 6 above. Could be a good link between 4 and 6?
Right Arete - doesn't seem to exist.

...but at any rate the climbing is nice once you work it out :). I'll definitely be back for the other craglets too.