I've been meaning to have a look at the highballs here for ages. They always looked decent but in dire need of a clean and de-veg. All done pre-pads back in 90/91. Although mentioned with (guestimated?) bouldering grades in more recent guides the vagueness of the descriptions and the number of heather tufts growing on them suggest they've never seen much if any bouldering traffic. Anyway, cleaned them up and did them, they're a good collection on Millstone quality rock with mostly good landings, well worth a punt especially combined with a visit to the Mother Cap.
I've since added some low starts to established lines and a great new line on the left and Gritlad beat me to the lefthand start to Night Cap.
The descriptions/grades in the guides are pretty useless so here's descriptions for all the main quarry probs (there are also some bits on the natural boulder I've not mentioned). Described from left to right. This was all done in quite warm conditions so the grades might turn out to be soft. Have got a topo at work I'll post up when I get a chance.
1. Mother Goosed 7b - The left side of the wall direct from the raised platform. Very good.
2. Flat Cap (with added low start) 6c - The central line on the left wall. Start matched on the lowest zag of the steep lightning feature, climb it, reach left then rock back right. I assume the original E1 5c line hopped off the boulder behind to start.
3. Andy Capp SS 7a - The steep central arete climbed on its left side from sitting. About 6c from standing.
4. Dog Brush SS 6a+ - Right of the arete. Climb the arete of the ramp/groove from sitting, or climb the ramp at about the same grade. Mantle the ledge and topout just left of the crack. The top is still overgrown at present.
5. In the Night Every Cap is Black 7a+ - Right of the vegetated cracks. Start on big holds in the graffiti. Make thin moves up and right to finish up the centre of the wall (shared finish with Night Cap). FA Emlyn James
6. Night Cap 6c - Start high on the right on the big horizontal slot. Tricky crimping leftward gains the shared finish.
Video by Gritlad. Probs in order of appearance - Andy Capp SS, Flat Cap Low, Mother Goosed, In the Night...:
