The Old Man Of Hoy

We will meet at the Scrabster ferry car park for 07:30 in the morning of the first day where we will ensure everyone has the correct kit and then board the ferry heading to Stromness – on board they offer a nice hearty full cooked breakfast which we can recommend to people. 

Once we reach Stromness we will need to wait a short while normally an hour or two before the second ferry runs taking us to Hoy itself so we often sit in a local cafe to discuss the trip and any other climbing adventures people have undertaken before. 

We will then get the ferry across to Hoy and the taxi to Rackwick (all included in the costings). From here we will deposit our equipment that we do not need like tents etc and we will walk across the paths to the iconic old man of hoy. 

We scramble our way down the steep banks and make our way across the old collapsed part of the stack which joins the remaining stack to the mainland. We will then begin our climb taking in the 5 pitches. Pitch 1 is a nice warm up on good rock before pitch two which is the hardest pitch of the climb involving a small down climb and two small roofs to surmount. From here, pitch three and four are very similar to the first pitch with easier climbing before we reach the fifth and final pitch which is often people’s favourite pitch of the route. We climb a corner crack which we can quite literally see through the entire stack to the other side!

Topping out we will admire the stunning views and possibly even view the sunset from the top before taking three abseils back down to the base. The final abseil is truly something to behold.

Day 2 mis very relaxed we wake up in the morning chill and then get the taxi and ferries back across to the mainland where will part our ways. If the weather looks poor on day 1 but good on day two we may swing the days around having a more relaxed day 1 and a more extreme day 2.

We pride ourselves on providing as much kit as possible for you.  However, the list below is what we recommend you should bring to your Learn To Lead Multi Pitch Climbing Course:

• Travel insurance. (We are insured for all our trips, but we recommend everyone has their own travel insurance as well.)
• Transportation to the venue. (We may be able to help with this though – if you need transportation please drop us an enquiry and we can see what we can do to help.)
• Lunch, water.
• Personal medication
• Sun cream, midge net
• Waterproofs (it is Scotland after all)
• Sturdy footwear.

Here at Highland Outdoor Adventures, we pride ourselves on providing as much as we can but you are welcome to bring your own equipment if you do prefer. The list below is what we provide you with on the day.

• All instruction.
• Helmets
• Ropes
• Harness
• Helmets
• All Technical Climbing Gear
• All first aid and safety equipment.
• Photographs of the day provided for you at no extra cost! If the weather is good we will have a DSLR professional camera and maybe even a drone, so we can take photos and videos of your adventure and you can look back at the day for years to come. If the weather is less favourable we will bring a GoPro (as it is waterproof) so we will still be able to take photos for you.