Mauchline Gorge

From SCWiki

Mauchline gorge is situated just outside the town of Mauchline, following the A76 south making a right turn just before the golf club and the bridge that cross's the river Ayr. Follow the road till you see a path leading through a field on the right. You can park anywhere around here.

Approach to the crag: follow the path through the field, once through the field you should be able to see the boulder crag to your right in the distance. The main quarry is up a slope to your left then follow the paths into the quarry. The quarry area has a covering of moss most of the year, some of the routes are clean however.

Main Quarry

On arrival at the quarry it is hard to see where most of the routes are, most of them are covered in moss. The rock here is quite good but it can be a bit gritty. There are alot of routes in the main quarry, however on visiting the site there were only 3 routes clean. They are towards the left hand side of the quarry and are named from left to right.

Gardeners Corner: VS 4b. This climb is easier than Y bother (just to the right) and acts as a good warm up climb. Gardeners corner follows the left hand crack to the top of the wall. Reasonable protection is available on this route.

Board Walk: E2 5b. This climb is situated between Gardeners Corner and Y Bother, it is on the flat slab between the corners, and has very little to no protection available. This Climb has been lead using peg runners, the holes are hard to find as this climb was covered in moss with only some of the holds cleaned.

Y Bother: E3 5c. Follow the crack up to the Y shaped split then follow the left hand crack to a large square cut corner. this climb is alot harder than Gardeners Corner with the crux move being extremely fingery. This climb is quite hard to protect, it is however a very fun climb.

Mauchline Gorge Bouldering Problems

Getting to the boulder crag is relitavly simple. Just follow the path straight once you get out of the field, the crag is quite obvious. This area is distinctive with graffiti on the crag.

The Problems:

From left to right.

Slinky Pinky: V3
Amy Crudgington 2008.
This problem is an extremely fingery traverse from the far left of this crag. It follows a small crack at head height along the crag face until it joins a vertical crack. Once here climb a short distance up to the next ridge and finish.(there is the possibility of a traverse along the whole crag face)

Stink Pocket: V2
Craig Rennie / Alexander Buglass 2008.
This Problem starts under a small overhang in the middle of the rock face. There is a small dyno from the starting position to the 1st big jug, from then on its quite simple climbing to a small ledge about 7ft from the base of the rock.

Up the Muff: V3/4
Craig Rennie 2008.
The problem starts under the Muff graffiti, it goes up to the horizontal crack then a small dyno to a pinch on your far left. It then traverses accross to the arete corner to a jug hold to finish. This climb is probably high in the V3 grade possibly a low V4.

Shut up and dyno: V3
Craig Rennie 2008.
Big dyno starting just to the right of up the muff, carry on up to the top if you make the dyno.

Dead Dog Dyno: V3/4
Alexander Buglass 2008.
An even bigger Dyno to start, major fall potential on this climb, starts round the corner from shut up and dyno and goes up to same finish, the dyno is staight up and slightly over hung leading to a hung swing out once you land the hold.

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