UKH

Access To Newtyle. 1st October 2019.

Over the past two years, the quarrying activity at Newtyle has increased.  The quarry material is being used for the current A9 Dualling work.

As of 1st October 2019: Beginners Slab is buried; the bottom 2-3m of Doorjamb Slab (including Spandau Ballet) is buried, and only a small strip of ground exists below it before a 5-10m drop to the now much lower quarry floor; access to Happy Hooker Wall is lose; the path from Happy Hooker under Pantile Slab and Main Slab doesn’t exist anymore; you can still access The Tube, but only by going up the boulder field at the back of the quarry workings; the normal access path from Deans Park has two large barrier fences across it with “No Access” notices on them.

We have been in contact with the company doing the extraction on behalf of the landowner. Their view is simple: the quarry is a working quarry site, and access rights do not apply here. They will ask anyone entering the quarry to leave and request that the climbing community respects this.  They are currently working the quarry Monday to Friday, and on occasional Saturdays for maintenance.”

Importantly, the company do recognise the importance of Newtyle as a climbing venue, and they have said that they are very keen to work with the climbing community once their work is finishing to improve the venue, and that this could include improved access, landscaping the area, and cleaning off areas of newly exposed rock to create much longer routes. They are currently unsure of how long they will be working the quarry, but it could be anywhere between 6 months and 18 months.

The current view of the local climbing community, and Mountaineering Scotland, is that we work with the quarry company and aim for a longer-term “post-quarrying solution” for Newtyle which has the potential for a much improved venue with longer routes.

Crag info on UKC Logbook will be updated soon.

Cheers, Simon Yearsley

Thanks for the update, seen the state of the quarry a couple of weeks ago and was starting to get worried.

Simon, just to be clear as maybe I'm not interpreting right, does this mean weekend access will still be possible provided they're not doing any Saturday maintenance?

Simon,

thanks for all your work on access, Here's to the New Newtyle in a few years time!

dave

Hi Pina, one part of the answer is very clear, the other not so.  Firstly, the company doing the quarrying haven't indicated that the quarry isn't a working quarry on any specific days of the week, so the access rights do not apply 7-days/week (lots of negatives in there, but it's the easiest way to phrase it!).  Secondly, one's own personal appetite for whether one obeys any clear "No Access" signs and of course accepts any resulting liabilities, is, as always, up to the individual. Hope this helps

Thanks Simon. And an even bigger thanks for your efforts in maintaining a dialogue with the quarry operators.