Donegal contains some of the most important climbing sites in Ireland - a fact that will be well and truly illustrated with the publication of a new book on this very subject next Tuesday.
The new Mountaineering Ireland guidebook, ‘Rock Climbing in Donegal’, is a select guide to the entire county of Donegal. It documents over one thousand outstanding rock climbs from Muckross Head in the south to Malin Head at Ireland's most northerly point on the Inishowen Peninsula.
Donegal County Council is delighted to be hosting the launch of this publication which will be a wonderful resource for both locals and visitors in exploring our amazing landscape.
This county boasts two major Irish mountain ranges, over a thousand kilometres of coastline, one hundred sea stacks and as many diverse climbing mediums and locations as you will find in the rest of Ireland.
Currently almost 3,000 rock climbs have been recorded throughout the county. These climbs include Ireland’s longest rock climb, Ireland’s largest mountain crag, Ireland’s longest ice climb and Ireland’s highest sea stack. This is in addition to many more standard single and multi-pitch locations above sea, by road, on offshore islands and in the mountains.
The author, Iain Millar, has spent the past nine years exploring Donegal making the first ascents of over 400 rock climbs and 50 previously unclimbed sea stacks. It is with this in-depth knowledge of rural Donegal that he has selected and documented the climbs within this guidebook.
What this guidebook will provide the first time visitor and the more seasoned Donegal climber alike is a lifetime, and indeed several lifetimes of outstanding world class rock climbing in some of the most beautiful, remote and unspoilt places in Ireland.
The guidebook comprises of 25 very different rock climbing areas. Each area comprises descriptive text and an area map to ensure the ease of finding the location. Throughout the book over 250 colour photographs have been used to help describe every cliff, crag, sea stack and mountain listed.
This ensures that 96% of the routes are shown on full colour photo topos taken from the best angle and position in optimum light to allow first time visitors to find their chosen routes.
Mountaineering Ireland offers its warm congratulations to Iain Millar on the excellent guidebook – which was a real labour of love. Mountaineering Ireland also offers its deep appreciation and thanks to all the volunteers who assisted in the development and production of the guidebook – it’s a credit to this voluntary effort that ‘Rock Climbing in Donegal’ will be launched to such acclaim.
The launch of ‘Rock Climbing in Donegal’ in association with Donegal County Council and Mountaineering Ireland takes place on Tuesday next, December 8 at 7pm in the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny.
It is also is available for purchase directly from Mountaineering Ireland at http://www.mountaineering.ie/shop/.
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