Muckross Head

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Muckross Head is a small peninsula about 10km west of Killybegs, Co. Donegal, in north-western Ireland. It contains a popular rock-climbing area, noted for its unusual horizontally-layered structure.

1 Climbing
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Climbing

A climber starting The Barb, an E1/5b climb at Muckross Head.

The Muckross crag is small and remote from major population centres, but it is quite popular because of the unusual climbing encountered there. It is a sea-cliff, situated above a partly-tidal rock platform, and access is quite convenient.

The rock consists of horizontally-layered sandstone with intervening thin layers of mudstone which have been eroded away to produce horizontal breaks and overhangs. The climbs are all single-pitch, between 10m and 20m in height. The overhanging nature of much of the rock makes climbing there quite strenuous, and yields some spectacular roof-climbing.

The current guidebook, published in 2002, lists about 50 climbs at Muckross, ranging in grade up to E6/6b. Climbing of all grades is available, but the higher grades predominate. In accordance with Irish climbing ethics, only traditional protection ("clean climbing") is used, medium-to-big cams being very useful.