Sheepbone Wall
| Sheepbone Wall | |
 | |
| Rock Type | Natural Carboniferous Limestone |
|---|---|
| Climbing Style | Trad |
| Approach Time | 25 minutes |
| Area | Gower |
| Sub Area | Rhossili |
| Local Area | Rhossili Sea Level Crags |
| Geodata | |
| WGS-84 Location | 51.567190, -4.300633 |
| OS Grid Ref. | SS 406 878 |
| WGS-84 Parking Location | 51.569301, -4.28840 |
| GR Parking Location | SS 415 880 |
| Parking Postcode | SA3 1PP |
| Base Elevation | 0 metres (Other) |
| General Info | |
| Faces Direction | North West |
| Aspect | Partially Sunny |
| Wind Sheltered | Seldomly |
| Climbing Type | Normal |
| Seepage | Quick drying |
| Tidal | |
| Before/After Low Tide | 1.0 hours (See Note) |
| Crags Within 400m | |
|
Black Buttress, Calcite Bay, Carbon Slab, Castaway Cove, Evening Wall, Fat Lady Wall, Keel Buttress, Lifebuoy Buttress, Mermaid Wall, Platform Area, Poser Buttress, Retribution Wall, Seamen Wall, Sheepbone Wall, Silent Fright Buttress, Silent Walls, Sinister Sister Zawn, Sinners Walls, Trial Wall, Wedge Wall, Windy Buttress | |
Contents
Tidal Status
1 hour before/after low tide.
Bolting Policy
No bolting.
Preamble
A gem of a crag located immediately below the seaward arête of Trial Wall. Scramble down to some ledges about 12m above the sea and abseil down one of the corners to a platform. The right-hand one (when facing seaward) is Chimney Crack, the left-hand one is Great Diedre. At the base of Chimney Crack is an oval pool and a blunt arête to the left.
Access
Can be approached via the beach by walking 850m from the bottom of the beach path. It is probably easier to abseil in to this crag via an abseil from near the bottom of Trial Wall. In calm weather and neap tides, many of the routes here can be climbed throughout the tide cycle.
Descents
Abseil back down or find a way to scramble down.
The Routes
- First Diedre 10m D
Climb the groove to the left of the blunt arête. - Mauk Wall 10m S,4a
Climb the steep wall right of the blunt arête and left of a prominent curving crack, passing a projecting block. - Curving Crack 10m HS,4b
Climb the rightward-slanting crack. - Chimney Crack 10m VD *
The obvious corner and chimney crack right of Curving Crack. - Skull 10m HS,4a
Climb the steep wall 1m right of Chimney Crack. - Cross 12m D
Climb Skull for 4m to a sloping ledge. Step right from this to finish up a square-cut groove. - Deep Cut 18m VD *
Climb the wall 3m right of Cross to gain and finish up a steep crack. - Forgotten Elephant - HS 4b
An eliminate using the thin crack up the wall. - Great Diedre 12m S,4a *
The obvious black corner 6m right of Deep Cut. - Yellow Edge 12m S *
Start just right of Great Diedre. Climb the right wall of the arête until a leftwards traverse to it can be made. Follow it to the top. - Grated Wall - E1, 5b
Climb the short hanging black arête forming the right edge of recess crack. - Great Diedre II 15m VS,4c
Climb the corner 3m right of Yellow Edge, with a tricky overhang at 8m. A slight variant climbs the crack in the left wall (HVS,5b). - Pistas Canute 15m VS,4b *
Climb the arête dividing Great Diedre II and Slanting Chimney, coming in from the left. - Rhiannon’s Route 17m HVS,5a
Gain the Pistas Canute arête from the right. - Slanting Chimney 14m VD
Ascend the obvious slanting crack. - Gambolling Gareth’s Arête17m E1,5a *
Gain the arête to the right from the right and climb it direct. - Gamble there’s a Hold - E3,5c
Approach from the right and follow the leftward-slanting crack right of Gambolling Gareth's Arête to a long, hard move where the crack closes. - Recess Crack 17m VS,4c
Climb the square-cut recess 6m right of Great Diedre II and then the crack splitting its back. - Recess Arête 6m E1,5b
Climb the short hanging black arête forming the right edge of the recess of Recess Crack. - Barnacle Ramp 17m D
The rightwards-rising crack and ramp right of Recess Crack. - Deep Water Go Slow 17m E3,5b *
The arête to the right.
At the right hand end of Sheepbone Wall is a cave. These two routes start from above the high water mark on a slabby ramp on the left. - Error’s Corner 9m E1,5b
Climb the corner, swinging right to finish. - Error Flynn 12m E4,6a
Traverse fingerholds rightwards across the black wall above the cave to a crack. Follow the hairline crack and faint groove in the steepening wall to the top.
First Ascents
- First Diedre - J.Talbot 1968
- Mauk Wall - J.Talbot 1968
- Curving Crack - J.Talbot 1968
- Chimney Crack - J.Talbot 1968
- Skull - J.Talbot 1968
- Cross - J.Talbot 1968
- Deep Cut - J.Talbot 1968
- Forgotten Elephant - M. Woodfield & S. Llewellyn 19th April 2011
- Great Diedre - J.Talbot 1968
- Yellow Edge - J.Talbot 1968
- Grated Wall - Martin Crocker 3rd September 2003 (Solo after top-rope inspection. No water).
- Great Diedre II - C.Hird, G.Evans, G.Richardson 1975
- Pistas Canute - A.Beaton, C.Allen, M.Danford 1989
- Rhiannon's Route - A.Richardson, J.Beynon 1992
- Slanting Chimney - M.Harber Pre-1978
- Gambolling Gareth's Arête - A.Richardson, R.Lloyd, J.Beynon 1992
- Gamble there’s a Hold - Martin Crocker 3rd September 2003 (OS Deep-water solo).
- Recess Crack - J.Talbot 1968
- Recess Arête - Martin Crocker 3rd September 2003 (OS Deep-water solo).
- Barnacle Ramp - J.Beynon solo 1992
- Deep Water Go Slow - M.Crocker solo 3rd September 2003
- Error's Corner - M.Crocker, J.Harwood 7th September 2003
- Error Flynn - M.Crocker, J.Harwood 7th September 2003
