On Saturday 26^th June three climbers away on a jolly for the weekend, stood on one of the UK’s most inaccessible summits – The Old Man of Hoy. Most climbers have heard of the Old Man of Hoy but few have done it. Yet any (reasonably competent) climber with few days to spare, as well a bit of grit and a mate or two, can get themselves a top, if not unique, climbing experience – and having been there and done the Old Man last weekend I can tell you it’s well worth the effort...

Our ascent of The Old Man of Hoy wasn’t anything special – we (Sean, Paul and myself) only did the Original Route, though paradoxically, we were freezing our whats it off whilst most of the rest of the country was roasting. We had a blast though and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Every once in a while it’s good to do something completely different –and The Old Man is certainly that! I would say however - at the risk of upsetting someone somewhere – that the Old Man is a great climbing experience rather than a great climb. For me, the sum of the whole was greater than the sum of the individual elements. Put another way, whilst the actual climbing isn’t bad (though some might beg to differ) it would be missing the point if you ‘measured’ climbing the Old Man on the basis of the climbing alone. The two ferrys to get there, the island of Hoy itself, the walk-in, the descent down to the base, the climbing, the summit experience, the ab-off, the walk-out all add together to make it stand-out experience.

Taken individually the pitches are a mixed bag; there’s one challenging pitch - the second; two decent pitches - the first and the last; and two which are... err... entirely forgettable - the third and forth. Strangely enough, the rock quality on the pitches is also mixed; the first and last are on (pretty) good rock, the third and forth look like rock except they’re green and covered in birds - and bird sh*te - but it’s the second that is a bit disappointing; imagine an overhanging crack-cum-chimney with smooth sides covered in fine red builders sand and you’re about there! A few moments in ‘your happy place’ won’t go amiss before you set out!

The Old Man of Hoy will take most parties three days; a day to get there, a day to do it and a day to get back. A super-fast team on a mission might nail it in two days. We took three and pulled in Forties Forties E3 5c, 5c, 5b on Mucklehouse Wall on Hoy on the first day and a couple of routes Deceptively Groovy E2 5c and New Sensation E3 5c on Orkney on the last. All were well worth the effort.

Top weekend – a UK mini expedition open to all. I’ll probably add a gallery up at some point and maybe an article but in the meanwhile here’s a few snaps...

Ahoy there. The west coast of Hoy has plenty of rock. The Old Man of Hoy (450 foot) is the best known and the most climbed, However, Mucklehouse Wall (300 foot) in the foreground has a handful of routes and bags of potential whilst the monstrous St. John’s Head (1200 foot) is in the distance …