Cilfrew Edge
BOLTING POLICY
Natural Sandstone.
No bolts, unless it's quarried.
PREAMBLE
Cilfrew is a delightful natural outcrop situated in a sheltered woodland park on the western side of the Neath Valley. The cliff generally faces south-east but sunshine or shade is easily found.
The rock is an attractively weathered Pennant Sandstone which hosts a variety of climbing styles; overhangs, walls, slabs, cracks, arêtes, chimneys, the lot.
It is a great winter crag, as when the leaves drop it receives plenty of sunshine and dries very quickly. Conversely, in the summer (end of May to start of September), the canopy can make it humid and midgy, so best to visit on a windy day.
The woodland setting does mean that leaf litter can accumulate and a brush may be helpful to clear ledges and top outs (which have been well cleaned by the first ascentionists) prior to that big lead.
Climbs are predominantly cam protected (blue, green, yellow totem cam sizes on everthing), but a set of wires and hexes are useful too. Who knows, maybe Cilfrew will turn out to be a haven for soloists one day.
There is also some Bouldering at Cilfrew which are best described separately.
ACCESS
The crag lies above the main car park in Craig Gwladys Country Park, Aberdulais. It's a stones throw from Swansea and is less than 40 mins to the car park from Cardiff, M4 J32.
From M4 J43 (Llandarcy) follow the A465 north. After 4 miles take the Severn Sisters/Aberdulais turn off. At the roundabout take the first exit, signposted 'Cilfrew' and A4230. Passing under a railway bridge (200 m), take a sharp right signed 'Cilfrew' & 'Penscynor'. After 500 m and a few speed bumps, at crest of the rise, is a left turning poorly (brown) sign-posted "Craig Gwladys".
Pass through the steel barrier to a T-Junction. Head left to the last car park (200 m). The barrier is locked at 3:15pm in Winter and progressively later into the Summer (up to 7:00pm), so if you plan to stay into the evening, dump your bags at the car park and go back down to park on the correct side of the barrier.
CRAG LAYOUT
Crag layout map coming soon...
Pages in category ‘Cilfrew Edge’
The following 3 pages are in this category, out of 3 total.
