Rock Climbing in Glenlough Bay
By
Iain Miller
Living at the North
Western tip of the Slievetooey Peninsula in one of Irelands most remote
locations is the breathtakingly beautiful Glenlough Bay. (1) This huge bay sits
3KM to the north east of the An Port road end. This bay stretches for 2KM from
Tormore Island at it's southern end to the End's of the Earth Stack at it's
northern end. The bay terminates at it's southern end in a wide Geo separating
Glenlough Bay from the Cobbler's Tower land mass. In this wide geo a pair of
huge bull seals live, they have always been there every time I have paid a
visit visited. They are extremely curious and will come to within a few feet of
you before disappearing under the waves. Glenlough Bay contains one of
the largest raised shingle storm beaches in Ireland and on a day of huge north
west sea motion the roar of millions of tonnes of shingle being moved up and
down the beach by the incoming seas can be deafening even from the cliff tops
200m above the beach. This 1KM long raised shingle storm beach is very
effectively guarded from all sides by steep sided 250m slopes of scree and
cliffs and from the sea by huge north Altantic swell.
Glenlough bay
contains a vast amount of excellent, if a little adventurous rock climbing. At
the southern end of the bay sits Tormore Island (2) at 150m at it's highest point above the ocean this is
Ireland's highest sea stack. This huge square topped stack can be seen for many
kilometres along the coast either side of it. It can even be clearly seen from
the Dungloe/Kincaslough road some 40KM to the north. In the centre of the bay a
further three huge sea stacks sits. Each of these three sea stack present a
very different mountaineering challenge for the aspiring summiteers. By far the
hardest and potentially the most dangerous of these climbs is the most
northerly tower named Jenga Tower and for anyone who has played Jenga, you will
get the idea of the rock quality on the sea stack. Running along the north wall
of Glenlough bay is the aptly named “End’s of the earth crag,” (3) this cliff is the a contender for most remote rock
climbing location in Ireland and provides excellent slab climbing in a truly
mind blowing location above a huge sea level blowhole. Guarding the northern
end of the bay is the lonely End’s of the Earth Stack, (4) This 20m high sea
stack sits in one of the most beautiful and remote locations in Ireland. It
sits 300m out to sea from the lonely wee bay to the north of Glenlough Bay. To
the south you have the vast expanse of Glenlough Bay continuing south along the
West coast to Tormore Island and to the east you have the vast expanse of the
north coast of the Slievetooey Peninsula. It's location ensures it attracts the
confliction tidal streams from both the south and north west causing a colossal
amount of white water violence in the bay surrounding the base of the stack and
standing on it’s summit is a moment you will remember for a very long time.
For a free
downloadable rock climbers guidebook to the Slievetooey Peninsula and Glenlough
Bay visit http://www.uniqueascent.ie/sea_stack_guide
or for more information to rock climbing locations around the coast of Donegal
visit http://www.uniqueascent.ie/undiscovered_donegal.
Iain Miller is a rock climber, hill walker and mountaineer
living, working and playing on the mountains, sea cliffs and sea stacks of
county Donegal. http://www.uniqueascent.ie/
Below are the further information links to the places
mentioned above there are also further photographs and footage.
