Slievenaglogh

Location - This is a small rough gabbro crag on the north side of Slievenaglogh (Gr. J 14 08) in the Cooley peninsula, just across Carlingford Lough from the Mournes.

Approach - To get there go to the cross-roads in Omeath and drive uphill for a few kilometres to a T-junction. Turn left and go through the Windy Gap, past the Long Woman's Grave, and take the left fork of the next Y-junction. Drive for about 5 more kilometres to another road on the left and follow this, up the hill and down the other side for 2km to a small turning opposite a green gate. The crag is 15 mins walk up through the ferns on your right. From Dundalk take the main road to Carlingford, but take the left hand turn just after Lordship, then go up the mountains to Omeath and take the second turn on the right to reach the same spot.

Description - The crag is divided into two tiers the Upper Tier and the Lower Tier. The Upper Tier as you may notice when you get there, is split into two buttresses, divided by a grass ramp. The Lower Tier is also split in the same way with the left hand buttress being considerably smaller than the right hand one. The routes on the Lower Tier are shorter than those on the Upper Tier but both tiers provide a variety of climbs. The routes on the upper tier are described from right to left and the routes on the lower tier are described from left to right.

It looks a bit manky but is very solid and most of the routes are cleaner than they seem. However some are very dirty still and a bit of gardening would improve things.

Upper tier - right hand side and some lower tier routes cleaned summer 2022.

CASEY JONES 15m S
I. Rea, M. Rea & K. Lindsay April 1990
Start at the base of the lowest point of the buttress and go up right and then left to a large block jammed in a niche. Finish straight up from there.

BIG RIVER 15m VS 4c
I. Rea & K. Lindsay August 1991
From the niche just left of Casey Jones climb the thin finger crack in the wall to the top.

SWEET JAM 15m HVS 5a
I. Rea & K. Lindsay August 1991
Start another 2m left of Casey Jones and climb up to a square-cut overhang. Turn this on its left-hand end and move up the short wall which reveals a thin crack that brings you up the middle of the slab to the top.

SEAN'S S****Y SHORT ROPE 14m S 4b
M. Mc Donnell & C. Fowler August 2003
Start 2m left of Sweet Jam and climb to overhang. Up over this and continue up disappearing crack to top.

WINTERLAND 15m VS 4c
I. Rea & K. Lindsay August 1991
At the extreme left-hand end of the buttress are a series of pockets which lead you up to a bulge. Swing right round and finish up the deep crack.

GREEN SLAB 18m VS 4c
I. Rea & M. Rea September 1989
This shallow left trending line to the right of Eros leads to a ledge at the top of the thin crack. Go out right and finish up the arête.

EROS 18m E1 5b
I. Rea & M. Rea September 1989
This takes the very thin crack in the wall to the right of the pinnacle to where it stops and moves back into Quiver for a few moves. Then steps back right to finish up the middle of the wall.

QUIVER 18m VS 4c
I. Rea & M. Rea September 1989
On the right-hand side of the buttress is a pinnacle that you climb by the deep crack on the right.

THE ARROW 18m HVS 5b
I. Rea & M. Rea September 1989
Climb Quiver until 1m below the overhang. Make difficult moves to get to the left-hand edge of the pinnacle and finish straight up. Traversing from right underneath the overhang is easier.

ROBIN HOOD 18m HS 4c
L. Shaw & E. Farnworth July 2003
Climb the pinnacle by the deep crack on the left hand side. Once on top of the pinnacle continue up over bulge to top.

RAINMAKER 18m HVS 5c
I. Rea, M. Rea & K. Lindsay April 1991
Midway between the pinnacle and Lullaby is a rib/wall with a gungy fault on its left. Climb the rib to a ramp and up on this for a few metres to the overhang. Follow the overhang left to the finishing crack in the wall above.

LULLABY 20m VD
I. Rea, M. Rea & K. Lindsay April 1990
About 7m left of the pinnacle is an easy blocky corner that goes up a big sloping ramp running out right. Climb it.

BIG SUR 18m E1 5b
I. Rea & K. Lindsay August 1991
This is the obvious arête 1m left of Lullaby which you climb on the right to some good ledges and a shallow finishing corner on the right.

TRICK OR TREAT 18m VS 4b
M. Rea & I. Rea August 1991
Start just left of Big Sur and climb up the corner to an inverted V-shaped overhang. Up and over to end up direct.

Between the two buttresses there is a grass ramp subdivided by two large blocks. The leftmost block has several routes on it and the larger right most block has some nice routes on it. These are described from left to right.

TOMMY THE BIKES CHRISTMAS CLUB IS NOW OPEN 12m VS
M. Mc Donnell & L. Shaw August 2003
Start at the left most corner of the buttress at the obvious crack and go straight up as far as the heather and gorse. Traverse left and up around gorse and continue to the top.

DON'T FORGET YOUR PICKAXE 12m HS 4b
M. Mc Donnell & L. Shaw August 2003
Start 2m right of Tommy the Bikes Christmas Club is Now Open on the very corner of the buttress. Climb crack on good holds until ledge is gained. Traverse right along ledge and continue up over bulge on clean rock to the top.

ROTATION, ROTATION, ROTATION 11m VD
L. Shaw (Solo) Sept 2003
Climb up the obvious deep crack in middle of left most block. Mind the heather.

KIDNEY FAILURE 12m VD
S. Hynes & L. Shaw May 2003
Start 2M right of "Rotation" at the base of the obvious X. Climb straight up until the intersection of the cracks, then take the left trending crack to the top.

LADS IN OZ 12m S 4a
M. Mc Donnell & L. Shaw May 2003
Climb the obvious vertical crack of the X.

IN BOOTS, PLEASE 13m S
L. Shaw (Solo) Sept 2003
Starts at obvious crack in middle of slab. Continue up to horizontal ledge. Climb slab straight up from there.

JUST GRUNT 13m VD
D. Norman & L. Shaw Sept 2003
Starts 2m right of In Boots, Please. Mantle onto horizontal ledge and continue up corner to the top.

FEMME FATALE 9m S
S. O'Brien & G Angell May 2013
Starts left of "Left Sister". Easy start using horizontal flakes. At around 3/4 ways use bridging move to rock on right back-hand-side to gain small block ledge. Crux is final move to top out which has no defined hand/foot holds and is friction based. Top anchors are a bit back so make sure to have a decent length rope.

LEFT SISTER 7m Diff
L. Shaw & M. McDonnell May 2003
Towards the left hand end of buttress there are three parallel vertical cracks. The left most one of these is Left Sister. Climb it.

TENDONITIS 9m VD
S. McGrath & A. N. Other May 2003
Climb vertical crack 2m right of Left Sister. Nice layback.

RIGHT SISTER 12m S 4b
S. McGrath & A. N. Other May 2003
Climb vertical crack 2m right of Tendonitis. Then move left under overhang and directly up to top.