All Locations > International > Europe > Ireland > County Donegal

Gola Island Rock Climbing

Climbing Area Map

Areas in Gola Island

Easter Wall 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 1

Use onX Backcountry to explore the terrain in 3D, view recent satellite imagery, and more. Now available in onX Backcountry Mobile apps! For more information see this post.

Elevation:	70 ft	21 m
GPS:	55.09166, -8.36637 Google Map · Climbing Area Map
Page Views:	893 total · 7/month
Shared By:	Iain Miller on Jan 7, 2014
Admins:	Page Updates (admin only)

See Weather Forecast

Description

Gola Island in western Donegal is the epicenter of the Donegal climbing scene with well over 200 single pitch routes from Diff to E5 on the Granite sea cliffs and inland outcrops scattered throughout the island. In the main the rock is immaculate sea washed granite with only some of the sheltered zawns containing sections of loose rock.
What Gola Island provides is outstanding rock climbing in a wild, remote and truly beautiful setting. The island sits far out in Co Donegal's rainshadow and it is not unusual to be climbing on the island in bright sunshine and blue skies whilst the rest of the county is under a deluge of heavy rain.
uniqueascent.ie/gola_island… for the free gola Island guidebook

Getting There

By far the best place to stay on the island is to wild camp between the Loch and the sandy beach at the head of the huge sea inlet on the western side of the island, this campsite allows an easy 10 minute walk to all of the islands climbing locations and provides an outstanding place to wake up on a summers morning.
Pretty much all of Gola Islands sea cliffs require calm sea's to safely climb on them. If the sea is bouncing from the South West then the Binatok Bay and the North West Zawn offer sheltered climbing. If the sea is bouncing from the west then there are the two inland crags which both offer non tidal climbing on immaculate rock.