Climbed here 02-07-2020
Parked considerately in the designated visitor parking spaces.
Half way up our route, we were rudely interrupted by a resident from one of the cottages below, who was screaming at us to get down, and threatening to call the police. We calmly shouted back down that we would come down to see him once we had completed our route.
Arriving back at the bottom, we approached the residents cottage, maintaining a safe distance.
We calmly called to the disgruntled resident, who had gone back into his cottage before we had got back down.
For some strange reason, he did not come out to explain his angry response to our presence on the crag??
We left quietly.

Was there 25/8/23.
There is a sign saying access closed on the normal track accross the river.
We found nothing on RAD to back this up and continued.
We had also spoken to a local from the cottages who had not wanted to stop us.
The place is looking very neglected now.

09-05-24
Checked RAD - no climbing on Raven Buttress or The Bay. All routes to left were ok to climb on. We parked considerately in the visitors bay and walked in. We commented betwen ourselves that it was odd that there were no signs asking climbers to keep off Raven Buttress and The Bay areas. No worries because we were wanting routes left of the cave. Approach path was very untrodden making access difficult. Climbed 4 routes around Gymnic area. A guy turned up and introduced himself as the Manager. I asked where he came from and he said from the top down a gully because "its an easier approach than from below". He asked how long we had been there and we said about 3 hours but finished now. He then started talking about birds nesting and we explained that we were aware of the request not to cimb furter right and that we had not done so. He said yes but the Peregrines are very disturbed by your presence and you ought not to have even walked beneath Raven Buttress etc. NOTE his reason he gave for not coming that way was that it was easier to come over the top..ie not because he didnt want to disturb birds! He then suggested that we had walked past a sign as we came in and we said no in fact we had commented about the lack of signage. He said well i dont know how you missed it. He then said that we should go straigtht down from cave to pick up the main path at the bottom in the dale. I said well its very overgrown and i doubt that Derbyshire wildlife trust would be happy with the damage we will cause He said nevertheless it would be appreciated if you didnt go back the way you came. My climbing partner said OK we'll give it a go and so we set off. It was very dangerous with moss on scree and we were somewhat ripped up by brambles by the time we were down. Back at the car i went to look for the signage and sure enough there was now a sign. Obviously posted after we went up the hill..it would have been impossible to miss! The sign said do not access Ravensdale crags and surrounding area beyond this notice. Overall our feeling was that the locals simply dont want climbers using the crag. I have climbed for over 50 years and have seen (and heard) lots of Peregrines over the years. I neither saw nor heard anything today and i think it is a disgrace that the BMC are not challenging this blatant access restriction by residents who have purchased property adjacent to a crag which the climbing community has enjoyed sunce the early 1960s and those residents are now stopping access by whatever means they can dream up. The most annoying thing is that they are succeeding because climbers are keeping away and the place is becoming overgrown. The residents have also planted lots of sapplings within the existing canopy of the woodland with many actually in the traditional approach path and lots at close quarters to the crag. Come on BMC get this sorted...or do we need to arrange a full mass visit and get really confrontational?

Ive just yped a long report regarding the way the residents are successfully keeping climbers out...but its not appeared here!

All lies, no birds nesting, just cottage owners successfully stopping climbing and BMC not challenging them. No doubt this comment wont appear so we will need to take action.