Berryhill

Grid Ref: NT938403   Aspect: S   Routes: 32   Max Length: 15   Average Length: 6

Altitude: 75 mtrs   Walk in: 5 mins   Route quality: **   Bouldering quality: **

The crag lies roughly mid way between Wooler and Berwick, close to the village of Etal. About 11/2 kilometres north of Etal on the B6354 a farm lane leads off to the east. Parking is available on the side of the lane before the farm is reached. The top of the crag lies beyond the farm and can be reached in 5 minutes. Please ask at the farm for permission before climbing.

General

A pleasant sandstone crag facing south and reaching a height of 15 metres. Although the rock in places must be treated with care, this crag is a beginner's paradise: there are numerous routes in the easier grades on slabs, walls and cracks. There are a couple of very steep harder lines on doubtful rock.

Rock

Fell Sandstone Carboniferous, Dinantian

Good on all of the easier routes.

Access

Ask at farm

Other interesting stuff

Millstones were quarried here, and allegedly there is a blank millstone in the rock where extraction failed.

History

The crag has been climbed on for a long while, Ken Macdonald ascended Marcher Lord in the early seventies, but it was only in the 1979 edition of the guidebook that the routes were named and graded. Since then development has been sporadic, many new lines attempting to fill already small gaps or providing variations to existing routes. There have, however, been some notable exceptions. In 1982, Bob Smith accepted the challenge of the big roof to produce Death or Glory. At the same time he climbed the equally difficult, but slightly less scary, Do or Die. Eight years later Bob returned and, on one day, climbed three new lines including Much Ado About Nothing and, with Andy Birtwistle, the difficult Legal Separation. In 1992 Karl Telfer, in the company of his brother Graham, added Faye of Flying to the main overhang while in the previous year the pair, with Joe Gilhespy, found an excellent and independent line to the right of Marcher Lord to give This Pedestrian. Tim Catterall, visiting the crag in September 1994 added a number of additional lines, A Pocket Full of Lichenight being the best.

Routes

Name	Grade	Stars	Description
No O Levels Required	E3 5c
Overhanging Crack	VS 4c	1
Much Ado About Nothing	E1 5b
Legal Separation	E4 6a
Western Arête	VS 4c	2	The left-hand arete of the crag has some lovely exposed moves, shame it's over so soon. Enter the crack on the left with difficulty, arrange some gear in the parallel crack then make increasingly exposed moves out right. Take in the view and finish up the arete.
Western Arête Direct	VS 5b
Cheat	VD	1
Kinmont Willie	VD	1
Jock O the Syde	VD	1
Reivers Way	D	1
Wall and Fluted Slab	S 4a
Steep Fluted Wall	HVS 4c
A Pocket Full of Lichenight	HVS 5a
Slab and Black Wall	VD	1
Slab Crack Corner	M
BerryGoRound	VS 4c
Slab Crack	D	1
The Flutings	VD	2
Hi Diddle Diddle	VS 4b	1
Marcher Lord	VS 5a	3
This Pedestrian	E3 5c	1
Footsloggers	VS 4c	1
Potters Way	VS 5a	1
Potters Way Variation	E3 5c
Slanting Crack	HVD 4a	1
Eastern Arête	S 4a	2
Do or Die	E4 6a
Faye or Fly	E5 6a
Death or Glory	E4 5c
Border Ballad	HVS 5b	1
Thrutch	S 4a
Route One	M
Route Two	HVS 5b
Route Three	VS 5a
Route Four	M
Flight of Fancy	f5+
Swarm	V0 4c
Dumbo	f5
Warmer Upper	f3
Cracker	f3
Nameless Arete	V2 5c
Nameless Arete SS	f6B
Toothless Fairy	V0+ 5a
Fatty False Teeth	f6A+
Munching Molar	f6A+
Lip Service	f6A+
La Bouche	f6A
Gum Boils	f5+
Hair Lip	f5+
The Undertaker	f5
Knocking on Heaven's Door	f6A
Satanic Curses	f6C
Gravedigger	f4
Golden Grahams	f6C+
The Berryhill Nibbler	4c
Bareback Rider	4c
The Furrow	f6A+
The Furrow Variation	f7A+
The Courting of Jilly Cooper	f6A
Whipcracker	f6A
Thing	f4+
Lurch	f6A
It	f5+
Fester	f6A+
Nameless Slab	f7A
Nameless Slab SS	f7B
Mortisha	f7A+
Puggsley	f6A
Boulder Direct	HVS 5a
Boulder RH	VS 5a
Lunger's Leap	E1 5b
Escape from Hell	f6A
Grim Reaper	4c