UKH

A bit of a long shot. Does anyone remember a group called The Goil Hill Team? I'm guessing they were perhaps an informal group of climbers operating out of the small Argyll village of Lochgoilhead. I'm curious about when they were operating and what they got up to, particularly at a rediscovered crag I've been developing. Below is a picture of an inscribed metal tag and peg they've left as a reminder of their existence.

It reads...

The last of the Goil Hill Team “It’s better to burn out than to fade away”

Surely the rural assault wing of Pollok Young Team!

Yes, I'm worried about what they might do to me if they catch me operating in their territory!

You need a gang affiliation quick..........Carlton Tongs?

A quick google strongly suggests the Goil Hill Team were Neil Young fans as the quoted line comes from one of his tracks dated to 1979. So presumably they were active in the 1980s.

As an aside, the quote was also Kurt Cobain's suicide note dated at 1994 but I'm guessing the peg is older that that...

From the Rust Never Sleeps album. Very appropriate given the state of that peg.

What's the crag? I work in Lochgoilhead quite a bit, in fact I am there all this week.

The Padlock

The some staff from the centre occasionally climb there.

You probably know but there were a few outdoor centres in the area.

Staff at Arrochar centre did a 40m E1 in 1984, 5km north of Lochgoilhead. They put a lot of pegs into Sub Station Crag. Your peg looks older than that, W.H.Murray lived in Lochgoilhead!

I only started climbing in the 1990s so what went on in the 1980s and before is a bit of a mystery to me. I did know about the 40m E1 but had no idea who those guys were. I thought it strange they only recorded one route in the area when there is obviously a ton of rock to be climbed. Maybe they didn't want a stushie with the Goil Hill Team. I figured it wouldn't be them climbing at The Padlock or they would have recorded something.

I sort of assumed that anyone doing new routes back in the day was well versed in recording stuff with the SMC. Was there much of a culture of just doing stuff and leaving it unrecorded?

An instructor at the Lochgoilhead centre did mention that there had been a Lochgoilhead "new routes" book but it was lost in a house fire. I wonder perhaps if the Goil Hill Team were frequent contributors to that...

Anyway, perhaps it's better to all remain a mystery. I don't want to find out I've actually retro bolted all their best routes.

Edit: I seem to remember there was a time when the far NW was an area where stuff was left unrecorded. If that was a thing, it seems to have fallen by the wayside.

tsk, are you not a Highlander fan then - think Kurgan

youtube.com/watch?v=YJ_bl4dr1po&

Nice spot but at 1986 Kurgan seems referencing Mr Young.

I thought Highlander was Sean Canary sword fighting on the Cioch... is that the same film?

Same film - a cult classic in its day - there used to be two plastic swords stuck in et Cioch so people could act out the scene, there may still be swords there, worth a look one day

A lot of short routes were not recorded, and for a while the SMC wouldn't accept routes less than 150' long, although there were numerous shorter routes on hills like The Cobbler.

Interesting.

It was a thing, but before my time.