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1 Portland Portland Dorset Lulworth Lulworth Mark Glaister Swanage Swanage Pete Oxley A guidebook to the sport and traditional climbing on Portland, Lulworth and Swanage Text and topos by Mark Glaister and Pete Oxley Edited by Stephen Horne and Alan James All uncredited photography by Mark Glaister Other photography as credited Printed in Europe on behalf of Latitude Press Ltd. Distributed by Cordee (www.cordee.co.uk) All maps by ROCKFAX Some maps based on original source data from openstreetmap.org Published by ROCKFAX in February 2012 © ROCKFAX 2012, 2005, 2000, 1994 www.rockfax.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright owner. A CIP catalogue record is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 873341 47 6 Cover photo: Bridget Collier on Stalker's Zone (6a+) - page 158 Wallsend crags on Portland. This page: Gaz Fry on the popular arete of Monsoon Malabar (6a) - page 76 at the extensive Blacknor Central cliff on Portland. Contents 3 Introduction........................... 4 Acknowledgments...................... 10 Advertiser Directory .................... 12 Portland Portland Dorset Logistics ...................... 14 When to Go .......................... 16 Lulworth Lulworth Getting There ......................... 16 Accommodation - Portland ............... 18 Accommodation - Swanage, Lulworth ...... 20 Swanage Swanage Shops, Food and Drink.................. 22 Climbing Walls and Shops ............... 24 Dorset Climbing ...................... 26 Access .............................. 28 Bolting............................... 32 Gear and Tides........................ 34 Safety ............................... 36 Grades .............................. 38 Deep Water Soloing . 40 Graded List - Sport Routes .............. 42 Graded List - Traditional Routes........... 44 Destination Planner - Portland ............ 46 Destination Planner - Swanage, Lulworth ... 48 Portland ............................. 50 Map............................... 53 History............................. 54 Blacknor Cliffs......................... 58 Battleship Cliffs....................... 108 Wallsend Cove ....................... 132 Coastguard Cliffs ..................... 164 White Hole .......................... 178 Lighthouse Area . 186 Cheyne Weares Area .................. 194 The Cuttings ......................... 224 Lulworth Area ....................... 246 Map.............................. 248 History............................ 248 Durdle Door to Church Rock ............ 250 Stair Hole ........................... 252 Lulworth East ........................ 258 Swanage ........................... 262 Map.............................. 266 History............................ 268 Winspit Quarry ....................... 274 Hedbury and Smokey Hole ............. 286 Dancing Ledge ....................... 296 Guillemot Ledge ...................... 310 Cormorant Ledge ..................... 320 Blackers Hole ........................ 322 Fisherman's Ledge.................... 334 The Promenade ...................... 350 Cattle Troughs........................ 362 Boulder Ruckle ....................... 370 Subluminal .......................... 400 Route Index ......................... 416 General Index ....................... 424 Trev Ford topping out on the fantastic sport pitch Nothing but the Groove (6c+) - page 170 - on the seaside Coastguard North cliff, Portland. 4 Dorset Introduction Portland Portland Foreward by Mick Ward Lulworth Lulworth The first Dorset Rockfax, back in 1994, came as a revelation. Portland, ‘a cheesy, unfashionable Gogarth that no-one ever went to’, had seemingly been transformed into a sport Swanage Swanage climbing playground. Surely it was too good to be true? The stunning front cover shot of Pete Oxley on Mark of the Beast Glasgow must have been shot with filters, mustn’t it? The sea and sky couldn’t possibly be those sublime hues of azure... could they? Dublin Manchester After spending most of the intervening 18 years climbing in Dorset, I now realise that it was all perfectly true. Amazing London colours of sky and sea. Superb coastline. More good routes than you’ll manage in a lifetime. The ‘Swanage experience’ of committing trad perfectly complements Portland’s bolt clipping. You’ve got lots of bouldering and Bournemouth Poole Deep Water Soloing. There’s something for Dorchester everyone – from Diff to 8c. Although no single Wool Wareham aspect of Dorset climbing is perhaps world-class, when viewed as a totality, the place is near enough Weymouth Lulworth a world-class venue. Given that much of the UK Swanage climbing population lives in the crag-starved areas p.246 of London and the Southeast, Dorset is of obvious Portland p.262 strategic importance. Nowadays, of course, it also p.50 attracts increasing numbers of visitors from abroad, drawn by its neo-Mediterranean climate and the huge variety of climbing on offer. While many people have contributed to development, one person has attained legendary status. Pete Oxley’s lonely orgy of labour has made Dorset the climbing paradise that it is today. Although he now lives far away, the cliffs will always be imbued with his restless spirit. The best way that we can celebrate Pete’s vision is to go out and enjoy ourselves. It doesn’t matter whether it’s chasing that elusive Portland redpoint or scaring ourselves witless in the Ruckle. It might be an exhilarating DWS. It might be our first, tentative forays onto rock outdoors. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we climb safely, we climb at least half as well as we’d like and we enjoy the craic with our mates. Dorset gives us the chance to do all this and more. Mick Ward, January 2012 Introduction Dorset 5 Portland Portland Lulworth Lulworth Swanage Swanage Marti Hallett enjoying a perfect afternoon on the steep lower arete of Under the Sky, Inside the Sea (7a)- page 176 - at Coastguard South. 6 Dorset Introduction Portland Portland Lulworth Lulworth Swanage Swanage Bridget Collier bridging up the popular Amen Corner (5) - page 236 - at The Cuttings, one of the east coast of Portland's most sheltered cliffs. Photo: Paul Cox Introduction Dorset 7 The Isle of Portland and its west coast crags are picked out in evening light. In the foreground is the arc of Chesil Beach, St. Catherine's Chapel and hundreds of swans from Abbotsbury paddling in the Fleet - the body of enclosed water behind Chesil Portland Portland Beach. Lulworth Lulworth Swanage Swanage The Book The pace of development and the continued rise of the popularity of climbing at both Portland and Swanage have meant that this latest Dorset Rockfax guidebook is on the shelves only a little over six years since the publication of the previous Rockfax in late 2005. The sport climbing at Portland and Swanage has been extended with many new routes being added across both areas. The trad climbing at Swanage has also seen a rise in popularity and, as a result, more routes and even a few new crags have been added this time. On Portland, most of the trad routes on the cliffs covered are mentioned in the text, but no lines are presented on the topos. For detailed descriptions refer to the Climbers' Club guidebook - Portland. This edition of the Dorset Rockfax is presented in the latest award-winning format, with full-page colour topos and action photography along with many new and updated features such as GPS, a Top 50, new maps and clearer topo lines and annotation. In order to make space for the larger topos and increased coverage, we have dropped most of the bouldering. The most popular area - The Cuttings Boulderfield - is available in a 2012 PDF MiniGuide by Ben Stokes. Devon sport climbing has also been omitted but does feature in the Rockfax book West Country Climbs, published in 2010. There is still reasonable coverage of the deep water soloing but for a full picture track down Mike Robertson's superb guidebook Deep Water. All these books are available from www.rockfax.com 8 Dorset Introduction Portland Portland Previous Guides Portland by Steve Taylor, Ben Stokes, Jim Kimber (Climbers' Club - 2008) Lulworth Lulworth Deep Water by Mike Robertson (ROCKFAX - 2007) Dorset (3rd Edition) by Mark Glaister, Pete Oxley (ROCKFAX - 2005) Swanage Swanage Dorset (2nd Edition) by Pete Oxley (ROCKFAX - 2000) Into the Blue (DWS) by Jonathan Cook, Mike Robertson, Steve Taylor and Damian Cook (Climbers' Club - 1996) Swanage and Portland by Nigel Coe (Climbers' Club - 1995) Dorset (1st Edition) by Pete Oxley (ROCKFAX - 1994) Swanage by Gordon Jenkin (Climbers' Club - 1986) Dorset by R.J. Crewe (Climbers' Club - 1977) Dorset Climbs by R.C.White (Climbers' Club - 1969) 2005 Limestone Climbs on the Dorset Coast by B.Annette (Climbers' Club - 1961) Web Site www.rockfax.com The Rockfax website is a mine of useful information about climbing all over Europe. It contains the Rockfax Route Database plus many PDF MiniGUIDES and updates both complementing the printed books produced by Rockfax and also covering new areas. Rockfax Route Database - This database contains a listing of every route in the book (and most other Rockfax books as well). The Dorset section has been available for over a decade and has logged a huge number of comments and votes on the routes. All this information has been vital in putting together this 2000 book, getting the grades and stars right and keeping a check on