Despite being right at the heart of one of the Peak’s main tourist hotspots, the limestone around Castleton has remained very much off most climber’s radar until recently. The smattering of old routes in Winnats Pass and Cave Dale remained very much unloved, with only the ‘fun’ mountaineering-style challenges of the Winnats limestone ridge scrambles and the tottering frozen choss of Mam Tor in winter getting any traffic. But a wave of bouldering development over the last ten years or so, by a number of keen local activists, has left the area with a set of immensely varied boulder problems which punch much higher on the quality scale than they have any right to.
There are not huge numbers of problems, and global uber-wads looking for cutting-edge stuff will probably be notable by their absence, but especially for boulderers operating in the Font 7 grades there’s a great range of styles on offer; from steep and powerful cave-pulling, long traverses, upside-down roof antics and good old fashioned vert wall cranking. Most venues shake off summer showers just fine and many offer an escape from the summer heat and the crowds of the more popular limestone crags further south, all being in some way interesting or unique. So if you’re after a memorable change of scene these venues are not to be missed, and fans of a post-climb beer, cake or ice-cream will find the Castleton area especially well suited.
