USEFUL LINKS
The following links to particular climbing sites are useful:
It is most important that you check the access situation for a crag before turning up. This is particularly true during spring when there may be restrictions to protect nesting birds, the location and duration of these can change at short notice depending on the success or otherwise of the nest. The 'go-to' site for this in England and Wales is the BMC Regional Access Database; in Scotland the best source is Mountaineering Scotland, Access.
The BMC have a near-miss and incident reporting system which can help us all learn from times when things don't go to plan. BMC Incident and near-miss reporting
For general gossip and climbing information UK Climbing is a good site which includes a really good Access Forum.
New route information is available on a number of sites some of which also offer free to download mini-guides:
In Scotland the Scottish Mountaineering Club hold the definitive record and details of new routes can be seen at Scottish Mountaineering Club - new routes. They have a vast database of well over 30,000 routes, all the routes recorded in Scotland that they know about, and all the route descriptions are available at Scottish Mountaineering Club - routes in Scotland. The SMC website is also the place to record any new routes or guidebook comments for anywhere in Scotland.
In The Lake District the Fell and Rock Climbing Club maintain the record of climbs and details of all recorded new climbs can be seen at Fell & Rock CC - new routes and mini guides. This is also the place to record any new routes or comment on one of their excellent guidebooks.
In addition to some outstanding outcrop climbing Northumberland is home to much top class bouldering and many mini-guides are available on the facebook page The Quiet County. When the information gets out the title 'The Quiet County' may not be accurate.
The high moors of of the White Rose County (Yorkshire) are home to masses of high quality bouldering, often in remote locations, information can be found at Unknown Stones Wild Bouldering.
The quarries and crags of the Red Rose County (Lancashire) are undergoing something of a revival and there are a couple of Facebook pages with news of recent activities,Lancashire Bouldering and Lancashire Rock Revival.
The mountains and coast of mid-Wales are home to a lot of little known climbing details of some of it can be found at Steep Stone,Martin Crocker and Mid-Wales climbing. Martin Crocker also has many other free to download mini-guides on his website, too many to list so take a look!
Leicestershire has some worthwhile climbing, particularly for climbers in the east Midlands with limited available time but wishing to have a quick hit on the rock. The guidebook has been out of print for many years but full details can be found at Leicestershire Climbs. There is also an on-line guide to Leicestershire Bouldering.
Our South Wales Rock guide is complemented by the South Wales Climbing Wiki which has many smaller and less well known venues in SE Wales and on The Gower plus details of numerous new routes.
In the West Country there is a significant amount of climbing on the Exmoor Coast but details are hard to come by.
Sport climbing and crags develop with great speed and printed guides are sometimes slow to follow. However Gary Gibson provides a lot of information on UK Sport Climbing.
There is an excellent Facebook page dedicated to Llyn Climbing.
If you know of other useful sites please let our webmanager know and we can add them to this page.
