South Pembroke

Page Type: Album

Image Type(s): Rock Climbing, Hiking, Wildlife, Flora, Scenery, Panorama, Water

Page By: Nanuls

Created/Edited: Jul 15, 2009 / Jul 15, 2009

Object ID: 529909

Hits: 723

Page Score: 87.71% - 11 Votes

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South Pembroke

Pembroke is one of Wales' most extensive and most popular climbing areas, being home to an enormous quantity of extremely high quality climbing, among some of the countries most spectacular scenery. The vast majority takes place on the area's sea cliffs, which are notorious for their difficulty and serious nature. Self rescue is rarely an option here.

The principle climbing areas are split between the north and the south, and despite Pembroke’s relatively small size, they differ greatly in character.

The character of Pembroke's southern climbing venues differ greatly from those of the north, largely thanks to the prevalence of its very tall, and very steep, limestone cliffs. The cliffs of the Castlemartin Range are particularly noted for the quality of their rock, however, there is little for the novice here, with even the easier crags requiring an abseil or some form of down climbing to reach. The Range is also subject to various restrictions on access, bought on by the area’s use as a military firing range and its designation as both a Special Area of Conservation and Special Protection Area. Range West for example currently requires prospective climbers to attend a briefing session from the MOD before being given a season pass, while both it and Range East can generally only be accessed on a weekend, as firing takes place during on week days. Currently proposals are being considered to ease these restrictions and less draconian measures may be implemented as early as this year (2009).

I'm currently producing an area page for the whole of Pembroke, and I'll be using this as a place to dump and display photographs.