Pictured above is Snibe Hill as seen from near the summit of Craiglee on a summer evening. Photo courtesy of David McNicol.
Introduction Craignaw is a great wee rocky hill in the middle of the Galloway Hills. This page has details of the climbs on the south facing slabs and buttresses at Snibe Hill, which is located right at the southern end of Craignaw. The crag is nicely situated and is generally sunnier, less damp and less midgy than many others in the Galloway Hills. Gear placements are also easier than on much of the other Galloway granite as for some reason the cracks at Snibe Hill are less flared. The crag will generally be dry enough to climb just one or two days after rain.
Myself and Linda Biggar on the second pitch of the excellent "The Arête", HS (or VS?) 4b, ** on a cracking Snibe Hill day, May 23rd 2010. Photo courtesy of Stephen Reid at Needlesports.
This page was compiled by John Biggar, a professional Mountaineering Instructor and member of the AMI, who lives in SW Scotland. Contact me if you want to know more about climbing in Galloway or want to learn how to climb or abseil. This page was compiled with care, but it is not guaranteed error free.
Access The access is pretty long and will take about 2 hours on foot. To get to Snibe Hill (G.R. 464815) park at Craignecallie at the end of an unmarked road around the west side of Clatteringshaws Loch. Then walk or bike about 4km towards the Backhill of Bush bothy along good forestry roads. When the forest road turns north towards the bothy cross a short section of recently felled forest to reach the Cooran Lane and the large floating bog of the Silver Flowe beyond. The Cooran Lane is very deep in places and mostly uncrossable, but there are good stepping stones at approx. G.R. 476814. Snibe Hill is on the southern end of Craignaw and can be reached quite easily (and obviously) once you have got over the Cooran Lane.
There is also lots of good winter climbing on Craignaw for which we have a separate page.
There is also more good rock climbing on perfect rock elsewhere on Craignaw, see our separate Memorial Crag and Craignaw Slabs pages.
Point of the Snibe
Pictured above are the Snibe Hill crags from the south, showing the main climbing areas. These are described below form right to left. As usual I have only described routes I have personal knowledge of.
Wisdom Wall & The Seven Pillars
The first area when approached from the east is the steep clean looking Wisdom Wall, about 10m high with two short hard routes. It is just round the corner from the Seven Pillars area.
Just round the corner is the wall known as the "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", with the best of the easier climbing, very steep and juggy with generally good gear.
The Main Area
To the left again is the main area, with the very obvious Arête on the left and the clean wall of the Uncarved Block on the right. Particularly good here are The Arête itself and Walk on Hot Coals. The Arête takes a very devious route, on both sides of the fine arête, which has now been climbed direct at about E3.
On the left side of this area, just out of picture is an area of more broken rock. The climbs are however still good, though the lines are less clear. Eau de Goat, VS 4c, * climbs the first dry rib, belaying at a small pinnacle, Cat Goat Your Tongue, VS 4c climbs past the obvious overhanging block, then Cornarroch Chimney, VD, * climbs a bit further left still, with excellent rock at the top.
Mike Gennaro on the excellent Springs of Enchantment, Main Area, Snibe Hill.
James Kinnaird 4m off the ground and already past the crux on Silver Sand, VS 5a, Snibe Hill.
The Philosophers Stone
Further left and pictured above is the impressive blank 15m wall of the Philosophers Stone with Beltie, a sustained, E3 route up the central thin cracks.
We climbed a new route here in May 2010:-
If its hard at the bottom, its
turf at the top, S 4b, 20m, J. Biggar and M.
Gennaro, FA 30th May 2010.
Start at the obvious clean white cracks down and left of
Beltie. climb these (4b), move left to
avoid a suspect pillar, then climb the arete
above more or less directly.
Below the clean face of the Philosopers Stone are the Lower Slabs with two good
VS routes. Starting just right of these, a long but very broken ridge gives the
excellent Bambi, 60m, HVS 5a. It climbs the lower arête, traverse some
very easy ground, then up the steep but juggy upper arête - see topo near top'o
the page.
The Pearly Goats
Still further left (west) is another area known as the Pearly Goats, with several good climbs at VD to E1. There is a good VS 5a up the right rib (Faa Harder), description below. Little Egypt is a good HS/VS 4b up the twin cracks about 10m right of the Faa Side.
The Faa Side
45m VD First ascent 2005
The ridge at the left end of the crag. The first tier is climbed mainly on cleaner rock on
the right and leads to a grassy platform with a big boulder. The second
and third tiers are climbed on the left side by a crack and slab respectively.
The climb includes the slabby
buttress of clean rock lying just above the main ridge.
Faa
Harder, 35m, VS 5a, * J. Biggar, L. Biggar, FA 23rd May 2010
Start 4m right of Faa Side at a short
steep wall leading to a scooped ledge. Climb the wall (5a), then easy ground for
5m until a tenuous toe traverse can be made
rightwards back to the ridge. Climb up to a grassy platform with a big
boulder. Climb the slab above, starting left of
center, but finishing on the right.
Links
There is also more good rock climbing on Craignaw at a short outcrop near the summit, see our separate Memorial Crag page and on The Slabs at the northeast end of the mountain.
For full details of all the routes recorded at Snibe Hill so far, mainly climbed by Andrew Fraser, Ian Magill and Alastair Gillies, you should go to this page on the Needlesports website.
Pictured Below :- Giant tussock grass in Galloway, Winter 2006. Known locally as "Dougals" (think of that wee dog in the Magic Roundabout...) We found these ones on the way across the Silver Flowe towards Craignaw, they were the deepest yet!
