Colmcille Climbers Donegal Ireland
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We are a group of rock-climbers based in Derry, Northern Ireland. We
go climbing in Counties Derry, Donegal and Antrim, and many other places
in the north and south of Ireland. This website is designed to do three
things:
- Provide info for people who want to climb locally
- Provide news and info for members of the club
- Amuse anyone who visits
Climbing mainly takes place in Co. Donegal, but as you will see, our
members go climbing all over the world. You can see photos from such
far-flung spots as Canada, Nepal, Tibet, South America, China, France,
Italy and Switzerland as well as Derry, Donegal, Inishowen, Fairhead,
Sligo and Tyrone.
Caption Competition
For further details, contact Anthony Feeney (Club Sec.)
Minutes of the 2007 AGM
Summer Timetable 2008
Congratulations to new MCI Prez |
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Culdaff Climbfest 2009
There is now a separate Climbfest website at www.climbfest.co.uk. Photos from the 2007 and 2008 Climbfests are posted here.
The fourth Culdaff Climbfest took place on 3rd, 4th and 5th May 2007. The weather was mostly perfect apart from a bit of rain on Sunday morning. Logbook Reports of the Climbfest
The 2009 Climbfest will take place on 2nd, 3rd and 4th May 2009. There will be a mess tent and a barbeque will be provided though you must bring your own grub. Portaloos will also be provided.
It is planned to put the climbfest "On Tour" in 2009. The most likely venue is Glencolmcille, in the far West of Donegal. This could be a central location for such crags as Malinbeg, Skelpoonagh Bay, Sail Rock, Port Bay, and Muckross. Possibly a boat trip to Rathlin O Byrne island! It has to be arranged and a suitable camp site found, so watch this space for details of Ireland's only Climbing Festival!
Bring your bucket, spade and surf board, as this little explored westerly part of Ireland has fine "Blue Flag" beaches
and good surf. Bring the kids, why not? Colmcille Climbers will
be on hand to guide you to and tell you about the crags. In 2008 there were 50-odd tents at Bunagee with about 60-70 climbers and 20-30 children who were able to enjoy the great weather and the camp fire.
Accommodation
and camping details (opens a new browser window)
Map of Inishowen showing main rock climbing areas
Climbfest Steering Committee Meeting Minutes from 5th February 2007
Colmcille Climbers: Climbing Ireland!
 
This fire drawing was made by Valli Schafer for the 2007 Climbfest. The model is on the right!
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Information for Rock Climbers Coming to Donegal Ireland
Here are a few random links to take you to various pages that may be of interest.
One of our most popular crags is Dunmore Head in Inishowen, Donegal in north
west Ireland. This is because the rock is good quality, the climbs are short
and the crag is easily accessible from the road. Have a look at some photos
of Dunmore Head or read about a trip or two
to Dunmore Head or here or here and
there are plenty more trip reports in our online interactive climbing
logbook.
We have an online climbing photo gallery with
over 500 photos, and an online Donegal Climbing guidebook where
climbers can log new routes that they have climbed in Donegal, republic of
Ireland. It is expected that this online guidebook will be built into a valuable
database resource for future guidebook authors to access. If you do visit Donegal
to climb then you should not miss our Climbfest in the Spring. After the success
of the 2005 Climbing Festival in Culdaff we want to maintain this as a regular
event each year. In 2005 we climbed and bouldered mostly in Culdaff or around
the Inishowen peninsula (Kinnego Bay, Port a Doris, Dunowen, Crummies Bay,
Malin Head etc). In coming years we would like to show climbers other sites
that Donegal has to offer, for example, Eglish Valley, Barnesmore Gap, Malin
Beg, Muckros Head, Glencolumbcille, Downings, Rocky Gap, Poison Glen, Belshade,
Bingorm, Lough Barra, Muckish etc.
Ice climbing in Donegal is something that isn't often possible, so a page
or two that look at Irish ice-climbing are here and here.
The problem with Ireland is that the climate is very mild and damp. We get
Gulf stream warming and nearly all our weather comes from the Atlantic i.e.
south-westerly winds laden with rain. But the country looks the way it does
(Emerald Isle and all that) because of the rain and wind, so we shouldn't complain.
Membership of the club is open to anyone, we have members living in Galway
and others in Ballymena and Portstewart - we're not just restricted to Derry
and Donegal (though Derry is where we tend to congregate). We also welcome
members of all nationalities and genders; we've often taken visiting climbers
out with us when they have been here on holiday. We still keep in touch with "country
members" in Australia, Spain, Holland, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales
and other places. Derry has a university (University of Ulster at Magee) and
a busy technical college, so attracts students from all over Europe - joining
the Colmcille Climbers gives them a perfect way to meet some locals, see the
country and get some great climbing. Many Colmcillers are more than happy to
pick up and drop off a car-less student on the way to the crag.
Irish Climbing is nearly all traditional with
very few bolts (or even pegs/pitons) in evidence. That's not to say the boundaries
remain unpushed - the Mournes boasts an E10 (Divided Years climbed
by John Dunne, repeated by Dave Birkett) and Irish climbers have reached sports
routes grades as high as 8a. Climbing in Ireland is
concentrated around the coastal areas (as are the mountains) with little happening
in the midlands. If you are coming a long way to climb in Ireland, you could
start in Donegal, head east to Fairhead and then the Mournes, south to Dalkey
and Wicklow, west to Kerry and the Burren, and then north back to Donegal (and
spend the last week of your fortnight where you started!) because there's more
variety and crags here than the rest of the 32 counties.
So it's not just Clare, Dublin, Kerry, Antrim and Down, mountaineering and
climbing are alive and well in Donegal. Come and see!
RSS feed
RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of websites that have regularly updated content. It means that other webmasters can pull content from this site and display it as links in their pages. The Colmcille RSS feed carries a link for the most recently added route, photo and log report aswell as a random link. As it develops it will also have other links - send your ideas! 
Donors to this website (thanks to them)
Andy Tees, Julie Sittlington, Donna and Marty Ryan, James Boyle, Bill Magowan,
Phil Magill, Anthony Feeney
