Northumbrian Climbing Guide

The Cheviot massif shares with Great Wanney the claim to be the birthplace of climbing in Northumberland. The crags were only really popular however from the end of the Second World War through the fifties into the early sixties. In the first wave of development Basil Butcher and Keith Gregory climbed Zig Zag, Black Adams Corner and the excellent Cannon Hole Direct. Whilst Phillip McGill and Harry Warmington produced Long John, Tombstone and the classic College Grooves. Sadly McGill was killed and Warmington injured shortly afterwards in a rockfall on Dunsdale Crag. Towards the end of the sixties Malcolm Lowerson and (fingery) Jim Patchett virtually exhausted the possibilities for new routes with their series of routes the best of which is Fingery Jim. The latter route is still one of the hardest on the crag. The major remaining line, the "Cannon Hole Superdirect named Zeus the Mighty Bull, fell to Calum Henderson and Lee Clegg at the surprisingly reasonable grade of E2 in 1987.