[View of Dungloon with a climber just visible in the shadow]
Donegal: Ireland's north-west corner, renowned for its rugged coastline and its upland bogs; its friendly locals, its warm bars and traditional music. One of Ireland's biggest counties, it includes the most northerly point (despite not being in Northern Ireland) and stretches to Bundoran at least 100km away to the south-west - though Donegal's winding roads don't take you on a crow's journey and you'd be lucky to drive the trip in 2 hours. Some of the world's best surf attracts visitors to SW Donegal from all over the globe. Unfortunately, our rock doesn't enjoy the same fame. We've got great crags, in wonderful places, welcoming residents who speak English, apres-climb bars of the finest quality, plus limitless Guinness - why isn't everyone talking about this paradise? One word: weather. The same wind off the Atlantic that makes the surfing so good, brings weather from the south-west - we do get the odd spot of rain.
[Pete Smith doing the first ascent of a nice V Diff at Malin Head]
OK. It rains a bit. So what? It's the rain that has shaped Donegal for the last 13,000 years. That's when the glaciers retreated and left us with steep hills up to 750m and a coastline as convoluted and twisted as any in Norway. It's the rain that keeps the peat bogs wet because it can't soak through the granite and it's the rain that feeds the highland streams and refreshes the loughs that pepper the landscape and it's the rain that keeps the Emerald Isle green. So if you want to climb here, you wait for the rain to stop. You find a high stool and you get a pint of the black stuff and you sit it out - after all, when God made time, He made plenty of it. In Donegal, He also made plenty of rock, and He made it to last. There's nothing quite as resilient as a big lump of granite, and most of Donegal sits on a very big lump. The rest of the rock was pretty well-baked when the granite arrived, so we have a wealth of solid outcrops, both in the hills and by the sea.
The climbing guide book for Donegal divides the county up into 6 sections: Inishowen, the South-west, the North-west, the Bluestacks, Derryveagh and the Islands. The Inishowen Peninsula is closest to Derry - Northern Ireland's second city with a population of 100,000 - and consequently sees a fair bit of action though the crags are small. Derryveagh and the Bluestacks are the principal upland areas and include some huge routes. The South-west has some excellent and popular sea cliffs with (mostly) single-pitch climbs, while the North-west attracts mainly locals, having some quality routes but fewer of them. The Islands offer huge potential for further exploration - so far only Gola has been exploited, yielding 200+ routes.
As an introduction to Donegal, Culdaff must be the perfect place to visit. On the north Atlantic coast, the village overlooks a huge sandy beach with a small harbour at its westerly end. Only one of several bars, McGrory's hotel attracts revellers from afar with its famous Back-Room Bar and its varied and surprising range of live music. Local guest houses and holiday homes ensure that the visiting climber can find accommodation if the free campsite near Bunagee pier is not attractive enough. Culdaff was the venue for the Colmcille Climbing Club Climbfest in 2005 - an event that the club hopes to make an annual attraction.
Culdaff's most popular crag is Dunmore Head, at the east end of the beach. This dolerite outcrop reaches a maximum height of 20m with closely-spaced routes of the finest quality. Combine that with a two-minute stroll from your car and an easy walk-off up top, and you won't be surprised that this is a busy crag by Donegal standards (meaning that you could easily meet 3-4 other climbers here if you came on a dry Saturday in mid-summer).
If Dunmore was too busy for you, you could nip round to Dunowen - the cliffs at the other end of the beach. Here the rock is a fractured quartzite and the many routes are quite varied in quality. Head to Brazil Rock for some lovely climbs on solid rock in a beautiful position. The superlative Bunratti Pillar HVS 5a includes technical face climbing, delicate traversing and a brutal layback, and ends with a long step over a 20m drop to walk off.
Owey and Gola hog the guidebook entries for the islands, but there has been further exploration on Tory Island, Inis Bo Finne Island and others. See the online guidebook for Donegal at www.pete-smith.co.uk for latest details.
Gola has really good climbing in a really good location. The routes are mostly single-pitch, but this is the only criticism that can be levelled at an island that has solid granite sea-cliffs, a wonderful campsite, a lovely beach, grades from diff upto E5 and fairly easy access. Only a mile or two from Bunbeg, ferry trips are readily arranged and even a Saturday morning to Sunday night excursion can take in plenty of climbing. Bring water and remember to clean up after you. The island now appears to have a few residents, and many of the (long-uninhabited) houses have been restored as holiday homes. The locals tolerate climbers with no problems, but bad manners from a minority could always change this.
The area around Slieve Snaght (Snow Mountain) has routes of great length and seriousness. To the north is the Poisoned Glen, a very impressive cwm surrounded by vast lumps of granitic rock where the longest routes have over 200m of climbing. To the south is Bingorm, overlooking Lough Barra and more likely to dry out after a short sunny spell.
Collectively, the crags around Bingorm are known just as "Lough Barra" by local climbers. Many routes have not seen much traffic since being put up in the fifties and sixties, in spite of this they can be surprisingly clean. The more popular ones provide exhilirating climbing if a little tough at the grade. Be sure to do Tarqin's Groove HS - 5 pitches of superb climbing on rock that is in one piece from bottom to top. Do be wary of the grades, though, and make sure you have time to finish your route because there is nowhere to walk off halfway up.
Donegal's other Granite upland, a range of round-topped, wet hills with some outcrops that would certainly compete with the Mournes on Ireland's east side. Unfortunately, these mountains are right in the path of the rain clouds as they come off the ocean - we're talking 250 days of rain a year. The midges are specially bred here and climbers have been physically lifted off the ground by roving swarms. For this reason, if no other, try to get here in a dry spell in Spring or Autumn and bring a charm that makes the wind blow a bit.
A handy place to get a taste of Bluestacks granite is Barnesmore Gap to the north-east of Donegal town. On the South, 150m above the road is a piece of granite that looks like a few boulders from the road, but sports routes up to 40m in length. Bring cams because static gear can be hard to place in some cracks. Don't miss out on the demanding Age of Excellence VS, a line with endless variation and exposure you will remember for years.
There are other crags in SW Donegal, but it is Muckros Head that draws the crowds. Sandstone, banded with mudstone, has resulted in a strangely eroded sea cliff and climbing of the finest quality. Not just this, there is handy camping nearby and a large flat platform on which climbers can spread out their kit in the sun. South-facing, 50 odd routes from severe to E6 and an easy walk-in, there are people who don't bother going anywhere else.
To concentrate solely on Muckros, though, would be to miss out on Sail Rock and the awesome Main Mast. Three pitches, three stars, 69m, E2 5c and breaking Sail Rock from top to bottom, this crack has an E5 on its left and an E6 on its right. A serious undertaking at any time, but be sure to avoid a combined high tide and high wind or you may not even see the foot of the route.
Last, and possibly least, the North West would benefit from further exploration; there are certainly crags to be found and routes still waiting at the established crags. In addition, high class bouldering has been exploited on Cruit Island and at spots around Crolly and Gweedore.
Pollnalong, near Downings, has some good rock that should yield more than the few dozen routes already bagged. Crohy Head is hardly a magnet for the climber, but there are some very reasonable routes in great positions and the camping is idyllic. Crockanaffrin is a hilltop outcrop of poor quality, but even here the 20m Great Corner VS will give you an hour to remember and there are a couple of other lines that are not immediately forgettable (at least one, anyway).
Donegal's remoteness is its great beauty, but development has been swift in the last decade and the roads are many times better than they were a few years back. To get around you really need a car, so drive over, or fly and hire. The nearest large city is Derry (sometimes you will see it called Londonderry) - drive from here to Culdaff in 40 mins, Donegal Town 1 hour, Glencolumbcille 2 hours, Gweedore 1 hour 15 mins. Crossing the border from Derry to Donegal is no longer an ordeal, just drive across without even realising you've done it. Derry has an airport with flights to Stanstead, and Belfast is 1 hour 30 mins away with 2 airports. You'll need the Donegal Guidebook by Alan Tees, available through the MCI and all good bookshops. You'll also need OS maps, but that goes without saying.