Lewes Castle

Gower

A non tidal sea-cliff with a range of mid grade routes

Crag information
Climbing Area: Wales Rock Type: Limestone
Importance: Local CRoW Land: Yes
Ownership: National Trust No. of Routes: 22
Within National Park: No Year Developed: 1959
Grid Reference: SS414872

Due to late nesting sea-birds on the eastern arete area please avoid the routes "Fallout" to Gstelli" inclusive until the end of August . The birds are Fulmars and can be very aggressive and will vomit foul smelling puke over climbers close to the nest ...so it's in our best interest to avoid these routes until the birds have fledged!  The routes affected are also pretty poor!

 

Restrictions apply from 1 May - 31 July.

Reason: Nesting Birds

In addition to the advice regarding nesting Fulmars above, The BMC has been informed by the NT that they wish to impose a  seasonal restriction "....  due to the presence of ‘cavity-nesting’ Common Swifts* using the cracks in this face.  As a minimum the routes ‘Reptiles and Samurai’, ‘Isis’,  ‘Horus’,  and ‘Rhea’ need to close until 1st August".

The BMC does not normally agree to seasonal restrictions for nesting Swifts but crag nesting Swifts are very scarce and the species has seen significant decline in populations in recent years. We have been infomed by the NT  that they  "want the routes listed below at Lewes Castle closed until 1st August. The decline in breeding population of Common Swifts is very worrying". 

No climbing on the routes "Reptiles and Samurai" to "Rhea" inclusive fro May 1st until August 1st. 

Area information

Gower offers excellent sea cliff climbing with relatively few access restrictions. The National Trust owns a large part of the coastline and Natural Rescource Wales (NRW) also actively manages certain areas of particular landscape or ecological interest. The history of climbing in the region goes back to 1949. Some cliff, notably Pwll Du, Pennard and Gravesend are home to the nationally rare plant Yellow Whitlow Grass (Draba aizodes). This plant is found on the broken scree and rocks on top of the cliffs and is easily damaged by trampling. Climbers should take care to identify this plant and avoid any route cleaning or vegetation clearance in these reas. Some cliffs have seasonal access restrictions to protect nesting seabirds which are reviewed on a regular basis and will be lifted if birds are not nesting. For details of the Yellow Wall restriction please contact the National Trust (Tel: 01792 390636) or the BMC Access Rep. To Donate to the South Wales bolt fund go to https://www.southwalesboltfund.co.uk/swbf/support/ Gower is covered by a fixed equipment agreement reached after lengthy discussion at several open meetings in 1999 and 2000 and more recently in 2011, which covers all of the limestone and sandstone crags in SE Wales. There have been problems in recent years relating to the development of crags in sensitive areas and climbers should carefully consider the potential implications of new routing activities before embarking on new route campaigns. Please refer to specific crag entries on the RAD for further information.

Weather Information

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Anonymous User
12/04/2021
Nesting Fulmars on ledge halfway up crag, avoid routes Eden, The bottle and Cave Cracks