[Bonjoy]

Planning on spending about ten days in Ireland in early August in the van. Hoping to sample some trad action at the Burren and Fairhead. ANY helpful info is welcome, but specifically can anyone help with the following:
•   Any tips on getting a cheap ferry ticket. Best booking site, best times/days to travel, cheapest route etc. I know you can get £40 off a ticket by using £10 of Tesco clubcard points, anyone have any excess points they want to sell?
•   Are there any recent guides available, where might I get them?
•   Route recommendations.
•   Decent pubs/eateries near these crags

Thanks

[Sloper]

Food, wine, beer etc is seriously expensive in Eire, I don't know about the North but if you've got space I'd say stock up on everything that won't go off.

Possibly warm but if you haven't been bouldering in Wicklow it's well worth it.

[uptown]

•   Decent pubs/eateries near these crags
Thanks

Mirror wall is one of the most stunning sections of limestone I've seen that's not on the continent. Loads of great easier trad routes to it's left which are non-tidal too. Ailladie
I remember the sand dunes to the north being some of the largest I've seen, and the beach fully deserted and enormous. Shame you don't surf. The pubs in Lisdoonvarna are tremendous though verging on a front room feel. Just don't expect your guinness to be served too quick in that part of the world. 

Wicklow is beautiful, although the midgees might be a problem unless it's breezy. There's superb blocs, with good sounding trad above at Glendalough. Andys arete is a classic problem....

[danm]

Can't help you with the ferry, but it's worth knowing that the supermarkets in the North are making a killing from people from the South popping over the border to do their shopping. Prices seemed the same as over here. There is a campsite in Ballycastle near Fairhead, don't know if its any good though - we went feral and camped at the top of the crag in Seans (farmer who owns the crag) field - he's asking for £5 for a weekend parking and camping. There's water but no loo. Can't recommend Fairhead enough-talk to Brian at the Works, he'll tell you its amazing. Take a 100m ab rope if you have one, and check out this website which updates the current guidebook http://www.fairheadclimbers.com/ Take a double set of cams as well.

The climbers pub in Ballycastle is called the House of O'Connell I think? Next to the chippy anyway. That's about all I can help with.

[chillax]

Good choice of destination 

Can't really go wrong with Ailladie. A new guidebook was published last year and theres free camping about 200m from the crag. The best eatery and pub nearby would be McGanns in Doolin. Decent food at a reasonable price and good pints. I'm a punter so am in no position to comment on harder routes, but some recommendations would be:
E2: The Ocean, Gallows Pole, Marchanded Crack, Skywalker (a must-do)
E3: Sunstone, Kleptomaniac, Siren
E4: Wall of Fossils is supposed to be good
Mirror Wall has lots of amazing looking routes between E3 and E7 and a classic E1 called The Ramp which is great fun.

If you're driving up from the burren to fair head it might be worth stopping off at muckross for a day. Not an enormous crag, but great fun. Steep thuggy climbing with routes up to E6. The classic route here is Elvis, E3. There is a printed guide (for all of Donegal) but they're about as easy to come by as unicorn shit. Online guide is here

Fair Head is just amazing. Shamefully enough, I've only been once. Great single pitch routes at the prow and hundreds of savage looking routes on the main crag. Good routes on the prow include Midnight Cruiser, Railroad, Fireball and GBH. Theres also camping about a 15min walk from the crag. Best place for food & drink would be Ballycastle. The guide is pretty easy to get your hands on. More info here: http://www.fairheadclimbers.com/

Other places worth a look if you have time would be the mournes and the wicklow mountains. The mournes involves a fair bit of walking but theres fantastic trad and some great bouldering, especially up on binnian north tor. Most places are at least an hour walk in, but well worth it. The guide is out of print and theres a new one in the works, but theres a fully scanned copy of the old one here. Wicklow guide is also out of print, but you can find route info on www.climbing.ie. Glendalough is probably the best. Great trad and fantastic bouldering with a nice easy walk in. Might be a bit warm and midgey for bouldering, but you could get lucky if theres a decent breeze. The bouldering guide can be downloaded for free from www.theshortspan.com.

If you're passing through Dublin, Great Outdoors is pretty good for guidebooks.

[Bonjoy]

Brilliant, thanks all!

[Mike Tyson]

The cheapest we can ever get tickets when we are off to Northern Ireland is through Nutt Travel, do a quick google and they will pop up. Always Cheaper than the big boys. Not sure about getting to Eire though but well worth a look.

We over in February and nipped over the border breifly and it wasn't cheap. We whet for a meal and where as you used to look at the menu and say "it's ok, it's in euros, it'll work out cheaper" it was sadly no longer the case. q

[Mike Tyson]

Excuse my terrible spelling etc in that last post.

[slackline]

Give us a shout if you have any remote intention of going to Glendalough in the Wicklow.  I went last year and tried desperately to source a copy of the out-of-print mid-80s guide but failed.....but picked up a 1950s guide for £2.50 on flea-bay instead.  You can borrow it if you want to bulk out whats on the www.climbing.ie site.  Didn't boulder there, but looked great.  Sarcophagus was the main meat of our day and a great route it is too.

[abarro81]

Not got much knowledge on logistics, but...
Fairhead - was just there for a day, but doing Wall of Prey pitch 1 (e5, despite what some say about it being e4) and then the top pitch of Above and Beyond (e6) is totally awesome. Some UKC threads around with advice on easier stuff I think too. Primal scream (e5/6) is popular too. Old guide around.
Burren - hope you like right facing layback cracks, as they're the order of the day. New guide, though there's a couple of mistakes I think and a couple of new things too. Everything E3-5 on mirror wall seemed great. Jokerman (e6) was good. Wall of fossils is brilliant (e4) and ice queen to the left is really nice too (soft e5). The Vein (on the wall a few hundred m R of mirror wall (looking in)) isn't really E7 - better to do it as a DWS from an abb in, F7a+/b ish, all the hard bit is low enough so S1? Left of this there are some new DWS routes, can try to describe if you want.. Can camp right at the top of the cliff, the local village is dead expensive so bring all your food if you can, there's a pub in the village (can't remember the name) where there's a tap out back which they were ok with us filling water from.

Enjoy!

[reeve]

Can't recommend Fairhead enough-talk to Brian at the Works, he'll tell you its amazing.

He says that about everything, but in this case he is very much speaking the truth.

I've been to Fairhead a couple of times Jon, and although I was never in charge of logistics, the better of the two ways we got there was an overnight ferry from Birkenhead to Belfast. I can't remember the price from a couple of years ago but I don't recall it being expensive, and it came with evening meal and breakfast (assuming you could be arsed to get up in time - none of us did). Sleeping through the ferry was obviously a good way of minimising travel time.

I'd find it quite tricky to reccommend routes as eveything I've done there has been brilliant. I've never had use of a 100m ab rope for the most popular sector - Ballycastle descent gully area - as its a pretty steady scramble down anyway. My experience of the climbing was that it consisted mostly of stout jamming action up to around E3/4, then bold face action from E4 upwards. The crag seems to face quite a few directions as it curves around the headland so it may well be worth making decisions of sector choice based on the wind direction (we were largely confined to ballycastle gully area, which didn't matter anyway as its great).

Not been to other areas I'm afraid. Get in touch if you want a chat about FH though Jon.

[smacks]

First off - 

When I was last home I went thursday to the following Monday from Holyhead to Dublin through www.directferries.co.uk. Cost about £130 and was about 4.5hrs i think.

If you've got 10 days the crags to visit are Burren, Fairhead, Mournes and Muckross in that order. Dont go near Glendo at this time of year. Weather will be kingmaker for where to go. From Dublin, both Fairhead and the Burren are 3.5 hours away. You can park at the top of the Burren and its literally a 5 min walk to the crag. Fairhead - you would park at the bottom of Murlough bay which is about 5min drive away. Stunning location to sleep at. Scotland just a stone throw away...well, it seems that way.

I would choose Mournes next as tis the season. Binnian Tor and Lower cove the 2 best locations. The tors offer stunning climbing and amazing views along with a nice 1hr walk uphill. Cove is easier walkin and offers climbing of every grade. Sleeping would be easy as well in car parks.
Muckross is stunning climbing in a great location but would only recommend it if you had longer due to its location and the other crags are better.

Just call into the works or get fi to call me and i'll supply guides and more knowledge for all of the logistics.

And before Reeve and Dan come on here going why I said the Burren over Fairhead, it wins due to time of year, lack of midges, better weather and I think Jon and Fi would enjoy the fingery technical limestone over the brutal body pump of Fairhead. Plus its easier to van camp there. 

As for food etc... cheaper in the north but not ridiculous in the south. I'll give you more details on pubs (house of McDonell - or Toms as its known - Dan), and whatever, just get in touch.

Bri

[Bonjoy]

Cheers chaps, some great info there!

[SA Chris]

If / when the weather is shite, go for a walk up to Murroughkilly (in the Burren Guide) to see the amazing limestone pavements below the crag. The crag itself is quite nice, and a good option if the sea is too rough to get on Aliladie.

[DubDom]

Ferries get expensive in August. Ahhh, the Burren, Fanore is a bit of a Father Ted town, but Doolin's got good pubs. Are Pete and Vera living out that way? If it's a cool breezy August, Glendo would be okay, but more than likely it'll be a bit midgy. Some amazing limestone over on the Aran Islands, a boat ride from Doolin. Surely the Mournes are a bit midgy in August?

[andy_e]

Don't go to Lisdoonvarna in september apparently, because that's when the "love festival" is.

[SA Chris]

Sound like a good reason to go at that time.

There are folk festivals there too, which would be good to avoid.

[Mike Tyson]

If you haven't got your ferry ticket yet, try these guys:

http://www.nutttravel.com/

I always ring them and they are nearly always cheaper than every other operator.

[roddersm]

I'd second the advice above regarding the places to go. you could easily spend a week in the burren and a week in fairhead. Totally awesome trad climbing from E2 upwards but some good stuff below this especially at fairhead.

Muckross is really good also, mega steep with big holds - great routes E3 and above.

If you spend a day or 2 at muckross go and do main mast at sail rock- This is a classic 2 pitch E2 originally put up by doug scott. Totally word class. 

Pesonally I'd avoid the mournes and wicklow in favour of more time in the burren fairhead and a trip to muckross, theres also more options close to muckross in donegal. The midges will be bad in the mountains too.

Route rocommendations:

Burren:

Bunnen bui  VS 4c
Nut rocker HVS 5b
Route 32 E2 6a
Gallows pole E2
Skywalker E2
Kleptomaniac E3
Moments of inertia E3
Great balls of fire HVS
Black Magic HVS
Wall of Fossils E4 *
Ice Queen E5 *
Loads on arran wall and mirror wall.

*Haven't done

Fairhead (www.fairheadclimbers.com)

Girona VS
roaring meg VS
Black thief VS
Hells Kitchen HVS
Fireball E1
Midnight Cruiser E1
Basically of the E1s at the prow
Hurricane, Titanic, Blind Pew E2 and any of the E2s
Jolly Rodger, GBH and any of the E3s
Wall of pray E5

Bouldering at murlough bay is really good - Topo at www.fairheadclimber.com

Muckross ( info on donegal and the guide are avaiable at www.colmcilleclimbers.com or send me a private message)

Elvis E3 6a
Birdie E2
Pump up the valium E3
Stormy Pertrol E4
Loads of hard stuff

Sail rock:

Roaring forties  VS
Main mast E2 *****(5 stars!)

Basically theres load in these areas but beware the weather will probably be shite!

Check out the following sites for more info:

www.climbing.ie
www.fairheadclimbers.com
www.colmcilleclimbers.com
www.theshortspan.com 

[roddersm]

Also if you get the ferry you could also call by dalkey quarry for a day. The dublin boys would know better but there are some good routes like street fighter vs, the ghost E2, the shield E2 etc. Not a patch on the other places though... 

[chillax]

Don't get me wrong, I love the quarry and seem to spend half my life there. But its still what you would call "utter balls" next to fair head. Only if you're desperate. Being literally in the city, its like the crag equivalent of the cromlech boulders. I've had a couple of good midge-free days out bouldering in wicklow recently, so that could be an option. Very sharp skin-trashing granite though.

[slackline]

Have to say I was rather underwhelmed with Dalkey on the one day I spent there.

[roddersm]

Fair enough give the quarry a miss then....That said if I was on a short trip and passing through dublin anyway I'd sooner pop to the quarry for a quick climb than head to the mournes or wicklow both of which will take you away from the burren or fairhead for a few days. That said I haven't done much in either of these places and i'm sure theirs good stuff. Climbed at the quarry once a long time ago and thought it was ok, always ment to go back but didn't bother. Never spent much time in wicklow but is'nt spilikan ridge E3 really good? Sure the boulderings decent but haven't tried it yet.

The mournes is a nice place, haven't done many routes there and the walk ins are big.midges for sure will be a bastard. Lough barra, poisoned glen and lough belshade are options if you go to donegal to go to muckross, if you want to get shitty your mountain granite and midges fix.

[roddersm]

Regards logistics I would get the ferry from holyhead to dun laohaire or dublin - head to the burren for 3-4 days - then head north to muckross for 1 or 2 nights max then on to fairhead.

If you ferry to belfast then I'd do it the other way round.

Theres plenty of pubs and restauraunts in all these places. For the burren theres plenty of places in doolin, I was there recently and thought o'connors pub was good. Mcdermotts was recommended in a recent ricky bell article in climb magazine but haven't tried there.
Muckross is close to killybegs where theres a few pubs, hotel bars etc. nothing I'd recommend but theres a nice cafe that serves really good fish and chips but is pretty expensive. 13 euro or something for fish and chips.

Ballycastle is full of bars and chip shops etc. and the house of macdonnells seems to be the place to be, i've never seen any climbers there but the staff are really nice.

The guiness is great in all these places.