Sitting in the lonely and beautiful Glencolmcille area of South West Donegal, Skelpoonagh Bay provides excellent sea cliff climbing in 5 sheltered zawns. The 5 zawns each Zawn provides very different climbing experience from each other, from vertical walls in zawn 1, exposure in zawn 2 and superb slab climbing in zawn 4. Descents are by steep scrambling down gullies at the back of each zawn with very few of the crag and zawn bases having tidal issues.
It is possible to climb at Glencolmcille even with very heavy seas rolling in from the south-west. Several of the zawn walls are very sheltered from the prevailing wind and these walls can take a day or two to dry out completely.
Glencolmcille is an ideal place to play if Malin Beg is getting pounded by big south-west seas.
This location is a lot more sheltered than Malin Beg and as such sees a lot of visitor on days of bouncy seas. On your first visit, it is best to find zawn 4, it has the easiest descent and its south-facing wall dries quickest. Zawn 1 at the north end of this location is equally sheltered but takes a little longer to dry and is slightly trickier to scramble down into.
The route of the location is undoubtedly the wildly exposed Fruit Palace HVS 4c *** this 2 pitch route involves a lot of air as you climb above a sea cave.
