Jesmond Dene

Grid Ref: NZ254672   Aspect: S&W

Altitude: 35 mtrs   Walk in: 10 mins   Bouldering quality: *

From Jesmond Road, follow signs into the dene and follow the riverside road keeping to the same side of the burn. Go past the old mill and the quarry is just beyond the park keepers cottage on the right. The boulders are a couple of hundred metres further up the dene near Castlefarm Bridge. From South Gosforth, go down Castlefarm road to the bridge where a path on the south east side drops down past the boulders and leads to the quarry and beyond.

General:

Jesmond Dene is a steep wooded vally less than a mile from the centre of Newcastle. The climbing is almost all bouldering and consists of some fairly easy stuff on small quite pleasant natural boulders and some hard traversing in a gloomy quarry. There is also some all weather crimping on the viaduct walls at the south end of the dene, where Jesmond Road crosses the Ouseburn.

Rock:  

Coal Measures Sandstone Carboniferous Westphalian

Good solid sandstone, tends to get greasy in the quarry.

Routes/Bouldering:  

Routes:

The high wall in the quarry, underneath the ivy above the easy traverse, has been soloed by Bob Smith at E something, after chucking out time. The sober grade is equally unknown. Not recommended.

Problems:

The quarry walls have good traversing, the left hand wall being the hardest (up to 6c); the polished end wall is, well, polished and the right hand wall is easier (5a).

History:

The dene has been used as a training venue for at least 30 years, and the problems were documented for the Northumberland Bouldering Guide. The majority of the harder problems are the work of locals Bob and Tommy Smith. Tommy holds the record for the full quarry traverse at around a minute and a half.