Cartington

Grid Ref: NU038054   Aspect: W

Altitude: 275 mtrs   Walk in: 5 mins   Bouldering quality: *

From the Thropton - Whittingham road, 1 km north of Cartington Farm, a track leads off rightwards, through a gate, past a large wooden hut and towards Cartington Hill. Park somewhere sensible, around where the track goes left and through another gate onto an open field. The crags are on the hillside 5 minutes away.

General

Cartington Crag is on the western slopes of Cartington Hill with fine views up the Coquet Valley and across to the Simonsides. It consists of two groups of outcrops, the northernmost offering an interesting boulder and a couple of short routes while the southernmost has some more bouldering and two pinnacles with a few short routes of 7m. The overhung shelf at the south end of this outcrop is disappointing, being damp in places and with the landings from the overhang a bit too gnarly even for Northumbrians.

Rock

Fell Sandstone Carboniferous, Dinantian

Quite good, but the chicken heads are unreliable

Routes/Bouldering

Routes:

Half a dozen short lines are possible up to about 5b

Problems:

There are not many problems here, and there's nothing very hard.