45m, 2 pitches. This route is described in Northern Highlands North as 'Original Route' - the vague grooves up the face just left of the arete.

Photos (online) of the 1970 FA of North Gaulton Castle show that team went directly up the south side of the east arete, thus the more accessible (and popular) corner cracks just to the left are added here under their 1979 name, Out of the Deep.

Follows the prominent crack line on the right side of the south face. From sea level (low tide) at the bottom of the landward arete the first 15 feet of climbing to a good ledge can be problematic. This short hard section is unprotectable and has a technical grade of 5b. There is however a crack line starting under the roof, 20 foot to the left of this arete. If this crack is dry it can be led at HVS with a big move on to the ledge (The bolt here gone in 2016). From this ledge climb up obvious cracks and horizontal breaks to a large ledge/platform on the landward arete, about a third of the way up the stack. The second pitch follows the big crack through an open book corner to the left of this belay ledge on the south face. At the top of the open book corner walk left on a huge ledge to the bottom of a well defined further open book corner/groove in the center of this huge ledge, climb this to the summit. On the last few meters the rock becomes looser.

H. Folkard, T. Robins Jun/1979.

Ticklists

Ultimate Sea Stack

Feedback

There is no feedback for this climb.

Logged Ascents

7 users have logged this
19 users have this on their wishlist

Please Login to view more details on the logged ascents

Voting
High E1
Mid E1
Low E1
High HVS
Mid HVS
Low HVS
High VS
Mid VS
Low VS
Votes cast 2
High 5b
Mid 5b
Low 5b
High 5a
Mid 5a
Low 5a
High 4c
Mid 4c
Low 4c
Votes cast 2
Votes cast 1
Style of Ascent
Alt Leads
Followed
Onsighted
Flashed (β)
Not Set
Route of Interest
Saithe

Grade: HVS 5a ***
(Sandgeo)

Loading Notifications...