[GazM]

In my job I'm lucky enough to spend lots of time out and about in the hills and forests of Scotland and from time to time stumble across some pretty decent looking boulders.  Most of them are miles from anywhere and will never be developed, but occasionally some could be worth the effort for keen locals.

Obviously, I would never want to piss people off by publicising someone else's secret project boulders. However, I've definitely seen a few good blocks that I'd love to develop if I lived nearby or knew I'd be back with lots of time on my hands, and because of where they are or the condition they're in I'm confident no one else knows about them.  I'd happily put info on UKB if it would be of interest to the pioneers out there.

So, what do the cognoscenti think?  Keep quiet or shout about it?

PS. This weeks find was a granite jumble in Galloway Forest Park.

[a dense loner]

Keep quiet

[fatdoc]

I agree

[abarro81]

I say put the info out there unless there's obviously been effort put into cleaning stuff up. Spread the love.

[fatdoc]

Let discovery be just that...

[ducko]

Do the same in north Wales and give me a buzz spent days searching for boulders with no luck!

[SA Chris]

Agree with the barrow Gaz spread the word. There are too few people out there in Scotland prepared to go out and discover, and there is a lot of ground to be covered. Unless you have specific plans to develop them yourself the chance of anyone else finding them is pretty scarce, and there may well be people who live locally who are keen to get out and develop something.

Check with rodma or Craig Henderson (Hendo) who lived that way for quite a while if they have been developed and maybe John Watson if that fails. If there's no evidence of cleaning or developing they are probably not someone's secret spot.

[clgladiator]

Another vote for spreading the word from me.

[SA Chris]

I started a googlemap for sharing spots a while ago, that got some good info from others, but can't find it anymore. Anyone still got a link?

[slackline]

I started a googlemap for sharing spots a while ago, that got some good info from others, but can't find it anymore. Anyone still got a link?

http://maps.google.co.uk/ ?

[SA Chris]

ahaha hilarious

[rodma]

In my job I'm lucky enough to spend lots of time out and about in the hills and forests of Scotland and from time to time stumble across some pretty decent looking boulders.  Most of them are miles from anywhere and will never be developed, but occasionally some could be worth the effort for keen locals.

Obviously, I would never want to piss people off by publicising someone else's secret project boulders. However, I've definitely seen a few good blocks that I'd love to develop if I lived nearby or knew I'd be back with lots of time on my hands, and because of where they are or the condition they're in I'm confident no one else knows about them.  I'd happily put info on UKB if it would be of interest to the pioneers out there.

So, what do the cognoscenti think?  Keep quiet or shout about it?

PS. This weeks find was a granite jumble in Galloway Forest Park.

Share obviously, unless you have time to develop them yourself, but galloway forest park is not a new discovery, unless you have truly unearthed something awesome, rather than a combo of lowball and/or taller with steep hillside landings.

John watson knows what has and has not been developed there. Prob best emailing him.

[Stewart]

There's the rankin boulder as well:



+ these wee puppies which I aim to visit sometime in the spring 



Wouldn't be suprised if there are a few more wee gems hidden away somewhere

[rodma]

That guy on the rankin boulder looks like a bit of a dick

There are plenty more, bigger than the other photo you have posted (in the wild goat park for instance, which anyone can see from the road), but they are strewn out all over the shop and the terrain sucks for getting around. Have walked in quite a long way in various directions and tbh, nothing was as appealing as the rankin boulder, plenty steep and overhanging, but would be more lowball than Tom's buttress at Woodwell.

[Stewart]

That guy on the rankin boulder looks like a bit of a dick

 He does, doesn't he! Ha, I didn't quite put 2+2 together with your username there at first...

Are you quite familiar with the area then? I'm moving to near Thornhill next year and was hoping there would be something decent for an evenings play in the forest somewhere. Is it better just heading to Thirlstane and then the Lakes or the County  than faffing looking for crap boulders that have alrady been found?

[SA Chris]

Is Craig Henderson (Hendo) still climbing in and around Edinburgh? I know he did a fair bit of hunting when he lived out that way and may be worth plugging for info. He used to come on here, but not for a while

http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=480

[richieb]

I reckon Gaz is back out working in the wilderness this week but I am sure he will be back to spill the beans at the weekend.

Rankin boulder looks pretty good in that pic.

[rodma]

That guy on the rankin boulder looks like a bit of a dick

 He does, doesn't he! Ha, I didn't quite put 2+2 together with your username there at first...

Are you quite familiar with the area then? I'm moving to near Thornhill next year and was hoping there would be something decent for an evenings play in the forest somewhere. Is it better just heading to Thirlstane and then the Lakes or the County  than faffing looking for crap boulders that have alrady been found?

There is a lot of obvious stuff if you head to rankin boulder and investigate the area on the other side of the forestry road. I think there are plenty of lowball things to go at tha5 have not been done.

As a word of caution, most of the boulders shrink by the time you get to them, so anything obviously visible from forestry road will be small. You can see a granite edge on the crest of the hill above murray's birthplace on the A712; it looks amazing from the road, but a mate missioned up the hill to find out that it is head height. The same friend opened a couple of lines up on the aforementioned slopes but he has been shit and not recorded them properly so i don't think anyone other than he knows where they are.

There are some worthwhile wee blocs to develop on the slope opposite the rankin boulder, but further in above the forest. There is a 6m high slab type edge about 15m in length. Hardest prob would be about 5+ on that edge and low 7s (max) on the adjacent blocs. Google maps makes it look like there are other blocs even further in above the tree line. If i had limitless time i would continue to explore but i haven't done so in a year or two, since there was stuff in the lakes i wanted to do.

Missioning to the county from thornhill is epic for an evening, the lakes is about an hour closer. Reckon you could develop an easy circuit in the forest and being granite it's basically perma dry. I'll post a link to a google map with markers in locations that have undeveloped but actual lines when i'm next in front of a proper computer.

Chris, I never did meet craig since he moved to edin.

Richie, I'm basically a hobbit, so the boulder looks bigger than it is. There is still a hard line to do on that bloc if you're keen. It's shown on the crap topo i did.

[GazM]

Cheers Rich, I'm back from the wilderness. Trossachs this week but nothing to report.

Despite this turning into a Galloway discussion I work all over Scotland.  Most of the stuff I've seen is pretty far from roads so you'd need to be pretty keen, but I'm sure some things would be worth it if you lived nearby.

The stuff I saw last week was about 300m off a forest road south of the Queensway. You'd want a bike ideally.  I took a detour on my survey route to check them out, definitely taller than head height!  I'll get a GR when back in the office tomorrow.

[rodma]

Cheers Rich, I'm back from the wilderness. Trossachs this week but nothing to report.

Despite this turning into a Galloway discussion I work all over Scotland.  Most of the stuff I've seen is pretty far from roads so you'd need to be pretty keen, but I'm sure some things would be worth it if you lived nearby.

The stuff I saw last week was about 300m off a forest road south of the Queensway. You'd want a bike ideally.  I took a detour on my survey route to check them out, definitely taller than head height!  I'll get a GR when back in the office tomorrow.

That's about where the edge was i was describing, but would be glad to hear if there is more. The legbreaking walks through the old fallen trees really suck, so am happy someone else is exploring. )

[Stewart]

Well, I've had this thread at the back of my mind for a while and got the grid ref off Gaz about a year ago. Being injured at the mo i thought I'd finally go check out Gaz's boulders.

Firstly drove up the raiders road which is brilliant fun. Had to resist the urge to get all Colin Mcrae driving through the forest track. The South side of this also has loads of granite visible from the track. Mainly fridge sized boulders that would possibly yield a lowball problem or two as part of a circuit but nothing you'd want to make a special visit for. Might explore this area further some other time though.

At the end i got on to the other forest track west of the Dee and followed that to the spot. I had my bike but the track was open so able to take the car in which i was glad of as it was a long, long way. Sure enough eventually i was able to see the boulders from the road although there was new forest between me and them. A fairly epic 20 mins later i finally reached them scratched to bits, soaked to the thigh after falling into a swamp and narrowly avoiding two broken ankles.

I'm afraid to say the boulders themselves are pretty underwhelming in the end. Both kinda spoiled by having massive foothold/shelfs on them that would make them too easy to be any challenge. One of them has a kinda blunt arete to a slopey henious looking top out that would prob be pretty nails but it's far from a king line and pretty low. If it was roadside it might just be worth cleaning but where it is ..nah..sorry. There are some amazing looking torridon style terraced walls higher up the hill that might make for some excellent trad though. I couldn't face walking up the extra 200m or so to have a closer look.

I finally got back to the car after another few bog falls and then proceeded to get a puncture a few minutes later. The ensuing battle with the overly tight wheel nuts did not help my wrist R&R which was the mean reason for not being able to climb at the mo.

Despite all that I did actually enjoy the day! Pics coming..

[Stewart]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27296482@N02/14039565335/


This shows the boulders, for scale the change of angle on the left boulder is about head height.

Below shows the terrace, reckon the main crag is about 30ft. Could be great bar the epic approach.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27296482@N02/14039571075/in/photostream/

sorry, i'm too tired to think about how to embed the pics right now!

[Fiend]

Good exploring there Stewart.

[SA Chris]

Full makrs for making the effort - nothing worse than tight nuts.

Shame it's so remote, even if it would be devloped it would probably fall into neglect in a year. Consider how many bouldering spots on Scotland with tons of potential see very little development; too remote locations, too far from urban areas, not enough people prepared to stray from the beaten path. Tons of cases of this.