Wintours Leap & Woodcroft Quarry

The jewel in the Wye Valley crown, Wintours Leap is by far the tallest piece of rock around. Multi pitch routes soar up the sides of the valley, in a stunning setting – it’s pretty common to see grazing deer across the river, and if you’re lucky you might even spot an intrepid seal! With classic routes across the grades, it’s a great venue for first steps, or to bag the big E numbers.

Woodcroft Quarry is an excellent, extensive sport crag. Whilst the predominance of quality routes are to be found in the 6s and above, there are some good lower grade lines to have a go on also. With some routes stretching to over 30m, it’s a great place to work on stamina – just make sure that you bring a long enough rope!

Grades

Sport: Beginner to Expert
Trad: Beginner to Expert

Symonds Yat

With an extensive collection of starred routes across all grades, Symonds Yat is a charming place to climb – sheltered in amongst idyllic woodland, with nice views down to the River Wye. The climbing here is predominantly single pitch, with hundreds of lines across an extraordinary variety of rock features. Popularity has taken its toll to some degree, with many classic lines now suffering from polish, but the climbing is still excellent, and who doesn’t love a café and toilet at the crag car park?

Grades

Trad: Beginner to Expert

Wyndcliff

Incorporating Wynd Cliff and Wyndcliff Quarry, this area has become the local go to for easy sport routes and first forays onto outdoor rock. Close to the road, Wyndcliff Quarry sits on two levels, with the concentration of easier lines on the lower tier, and predominantly quite short. Sadly the easier routes are now quite polished, but still good to climb, and very well-bolted to boot. On the upper tier, the lines are longer, harder and more adventurous, with the odd section of loose rock to add to the spice.

Wynd Cliff is more adventurous again, with long, steep trad lines clustered around the high Severe grades and lower Es. Some of the rock can be suspect, but on the whole the climbing here is excellent and well worth the (slightly!) longer approach.

Grades

Sport: Beginner to Expert
Trad: Intermediate to Expert

Best of the rest

Shorn Cliff – A fairly long approach for the Wye valley (30 mins or so), but well worth it for a quality collection of single pitch routes on unquarried limestone. Descent is by abseil, so make sure your rope is long enough, or use halves instead.

Ban-Y-gor – An impressive clutch of harder sport routes, as well as some trad. Both single and multi pitch. Rarely busy.

Huntsham Boulders - This jumble of giant boulders provides a decent selection of problems across the grades, as well as some short, sharp trad lines.