Looking for some new bouldering venues? Tired of the same old grit or polished limestone? Why not try bouldering on some of the oldest sandstone in the UK; it's 800 million years old and a mere 6 hours drive north of the border.

I'm talking about the numerous excellent bouldering venues north of Ullapool in the North West Highlands. While I haven't looked at all the available areas in detail yet, I had the chance to visit Reiff In The Woods recently and was mightily impressed by the quality of rock and astoundingly beautiful landscape surrounding the climbing.

Torridonion sandstone could be described as a cross between grit and red sandstone. It's quite hard, not sandy and occasionally has usable pebbles. For trad climbing it can be notoriously difficult to protect with lots on bottoming cracks and flaring slots, but for bouldering its a very different story; the rounded, compact nature of the rock runs to lots of sloping edges, comfortable rounded flakes and abundant options for the feet.

Reiff In The Woods Image Gallery

The Areas:

Rhue – Situated just north of Ullapool. There are several bouldering areas on both outcrops and free standing boulders. The rock is excellent and climbing is possible on sunny days in the winter.

Ardmair – Just up the road from the Rhue turn off. Ardmair beach is a 100m from the road and offers thuggy problems above a pebble beach. On the opposite side of the road there are two further areas: Tifh-Na-Mara and Ardmair Ruins.

Reiff In The Woods – This is a selection of cubes and outcrops about 30 mins drive from Ullapool. Set below Stac Pollaidh, the views are astounding and the first problems are literally 20m from the parking place. There are a good selection of easy to moderate problems with some hard test pieces.

Reiff – The bouldering at Reiff is on the same sea cliffs as the trad routes. With incredible rock and a mild climate, Reiff is one of the UK's special climbing venues.

Crevasse Rescue V1 on The Scooped Wall

Like all bouldering areas their history and development can be attributed to many. Over the last few years local climber Ian Taylor has been prominent in developing and documenting these bouldering areas. Ian has written a very useful small guide to the area which is available from North West Outdoors in Ullapool. Tel 01854 613 383.

The guide 'Bouldering In Scotland' covers the area in less detail than Ian Taylor's guide. There is some further information at the  Scottish Climbs web site.

Ullapool is a good place to base yourself for a climbing trip. There is a campsite, plenty of shops, pubs and a good cafe above North West Outdoors.

View Ullapool Bouldering in a larger map