Dumfries & Galloway (SMC)

written by Stephen Reid, Andrew Fraser & Stewart Cable

£35.00

In Stock

This guide describes the rock and winter climbing in Dumfries and Galloway, one of Scotland’s best-kept secrets. The 64 cliffs and 1,760 climbs in these pages are always in beautiful scenery and vary hugely, from idyllic beachside bouldering to burly 180m icefalls, but above all, they are unfrequented and unspoilt. Many ‘remote’ Galloway hill crags are surprisingly close to the road, and an excellent climate allows for all-year-round rock climbing on the sea cliffs, where high-quality granite and diorite routes abound. Compiled and updated by local activists, this new guide presents the best that this unsung area has to offer both seasoned climbers and to those taking their first steps onto outdoor crags. Throughout, you’ll find full-colour photographic topos, inspiring action shots and detailed maps that help remove the mystery, but not the magic.

Specifications

Softback with 428 pages
Illustrated in colour throughout
Size: 148 x 210 mm (portrait)
ISBN: 978-1-907233-60-9
Printed on FSC paper

About the author

Stephen Reid has been exploring the crags and hills of South-West Scotland from a base in north Cumbria since the early 1990s, and is still finding new places of interest. He has climbed almost every summer and winter route in the Galloway Hills – many of which he put up himself – and has been involved in more than five hundred new climbs across the area.

Andrew Fraser started climbing in Galloway in 1974 with a rope found on a tree, when the region had fewer than twenty recorded climbs. Fifty-two years and seven hundred new routes later, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the area: if there is an unclimbed cliff or line, he probably knows about it – or is lying to keep it secret. Now retired, in his other life he was a local government lawyer, Head of Democratic Services, and former Chair of the charity Alcohol Focus Scotland.

Stewart Cable moved to Dumfries and Galloway in 2013 in search of esoteric bouldering development opportunities. Since then he has found countless granite boulders that are not quite big enough, and written a children’s novel, The Flitspace.