The county of Donegal sits in the most North West point of Ireland. What Donegal provides for a visiting climber is more rock climbing venues, routes and untouched rock than the rest of Ireland combined. The wealth and diversity of climbing available is unlimited here, from mud stone roofs at Muckross in the south of the county to the black slabs at Malin Head, (Ireland’s most northern point) in the north of the county. Donegal is home to Ireland’s:

Longest rock climb – the Sturrall Ridge 800m (2624ft)

Highest sea stack – the Tormore Island 150m (500ft)

Highest mountain crag – the Poisoned Glen.

Guide to climbing the County of Donegal: Here

Where the rock climbing in Donegal becomes a bit surreal is with its sea stacks. There are over 100 outstanding stacks along the coast of the Donegal mainland and its offshore islands. These sea stacks contain a lifetime worth of the most adventurous, remote and atmospheric rock climbs in Ireland.

Guide to climbing sea stacks in Donegal: Here

A normal day on a sea stack will require a 200m (656ft) descent to sea level to access remote and isolated storm beaches where it is highly unlikely anyone has ever stood before. This is followed by an UBER committing sea passage along the bases of unclimbed 250m (820ft) sea cliffs in totally inescapable locations. As always, a bit of logistics and planning is the key to success! Of course the adoption of perhaps less orthodox climbing equipment such as 60m (200ft) of 6mm polypro, a lightweight Lidl Dingy, a single lightweight paddle, divers booties, a 20ft Cordette, a pair of Speedo’s, heavy duty dry bags, 20m (65ft) of 12mm polyprop, an alpine hammer, a snow bar, a selection of pegs, a chest harness/inverted Gri-Gri combo and a big Grin may be required!

The main residence of the sea stacks is the location of An Port in the southwest of the county. Access to this forgotten place is by a narrow winding 20km (12 mi) road which takes you to the An Port road end. This road end is quite simply the most beautiful location in Ireland. A trip to this road end is an outstanding journey in its own right, but it’s what lives along the coast from this road end that makes it a mind-blowing location.

Approximately a kilometer to the north of An Port is An Bhuideal, an immaculate and iconic twin headed stack. There are currently four routes to its twin summits and all four are world-class adventurous rock climbs. The slim North tower of this stack provides an unforgettable experience with a three pitch 5.7 route to a tiny and extremely exposed summit. The rappel descent from this summit involves a wee bit of prayer, as the rap anchors are a pile of rocks along with a landward facing overhang in its upper half.

Travelling a kilometer further north takes you to a stunning viewpoint of the Tormore Island, Ireland’s highest sea stack. To the south of Tormore is the 100m (330ft) Cnoc na Mara (Hill of the Sea), it is difficult not to get emotional when talking about the mighty Cnoc na Mara.

For more information on Cnoc na Mara: Here

When I first saw this 100m (330ft) sea stack from the overlooking cliff tops, it was my inspiration to climb every unclimbed sea stack in Donegal. It is safe to say this stack represents all that is great about adventure climbing. Its impressive soaring 150m (500ft) long landward arête provides one of the most rewarding and adventurous rock climbs in Ireland. It is easily an equal to the mighty Old Man of Hoy off the Orkney Islands in the north of Scotland. Access is by a monstrous steep grassy descent followed by a 20m (65ft) abseil to a storm beach at the entrance to Shambala. As you descend this steep slope sitting out to sea, Cnoc na Mara grows in height, reaching epic proportions as you get closer to beach. Getting to the beach alone is an adventurous undertaking in its own right and is an excellent taste of what is to come. The beach paddle out is about 120m (400ft) to the base of the stack. The Landward arête is climbed in four pitches each pitch being much more atmospheric than the last. The fourth pitch is the money shot, a 58m (190ft) ridge traverse with 100m (330ft) of air on either side of you as you negotiate the short steep sections along this outstanding ridge traverse.

Gaining the summit is like being reborn into a world where anything is possible; it truly is a surreal and magical place to be. The whole world falls away below and around you, as you are perched on a summit far from anything else.

Tormore Island is a gigantic leviathan, a sentinel of the deep standing guard at the nautical gates of the Slievetooey coastline. At 150m (500ft) at its highest point above the ocean, it is Ireland’s highest sea stack. This huge square topped stack can be seen for many kilometers along the coast. It can even be clearly seen from the Dungloe/Kincaslough road some 40km (25 mi) to the north. Access is a very involved affair and entails getting to the storm beach just like Cnoc na Mara, Lurking Fear and Tormore Island. From here it is a 500m (1/3 mi) paddle around the headland to the north of the storm beach and a 250m (820 ft) paddle through the outstanding channel separating Tormore Island and Donegal mainland. At the northern end of the land ward face there is a huge ledge just above the high water mark.

In 2008, a team of four climbers took a 250HP RiB and landed on the landward face of the stack. Two members of the party had made several attempts to land on and climb the stack in the past. We were aware of the story of the man who was buried there. During our climb of the stack, we searched any possible place where someone could be buried and found no possible burial site or any trace of the passage of people on the stack prior to our ascent. We found no evidence or trace of previous visitors on the summit. To get off the summit back to sea level, we made four 50m (164ft) abseils leaving behind two 240cm slings and 4 pegs as abseil anchors.

We climbed the very obvious land ward arête at the northern side of the landward face. This huge feature can be easily seen from any position along the coast overlooking the stack. The route we took to the summit was climbed in 5 long pitches following the easiest line up the huge feature. The descent was by 4 – 50m (164ft) abseils down the route back to our start point on the huge ledge above the high water mark.

To the North of the Tormore viewpoint, the land falls away down into Glenlough Bay, a truly spectacular bay containing another 4 sea stacks and Ireland’s largest raised shingle storm beach. On a day of huge northwest motion, the roar of millions of tons of shingle (beach rocks) being moved up and down the beach by the incoming seas can be deafening even from the cliff tops 200m (660ft) above the beach.

This post was written and submitted in by Iain Miller

Iain Miller is a rock climber living, working and climbing in Donegal, Ireland. For more information on the rock climbing and hill walking available in Donegal check out Iain’s website- www.uniqueascent.ie