Old Man of Hoy

The Old Man of Hoy is a 137-metre (449-foot) sea stack formed from Old Red Sandstone, it is one of the tallest stacks in Britain. Not more than a few hundred years old since it was formed by progressive rock collapse of a headland, the south face is showing signs which mean that it may (at least in part) collapse into the sea in the near future. The Old Man was first climbed in 1966 and has proved popular with serious adventure seekers since. The classic 1966 route is graded at E1 5b and goes up this eastern face. The UK Climbing online logbook has this delicious account of the climbing from one contributor: A true adventure, yes. The remoteness, the excitement of seeing it from the ferry, the fairly sketchy approach, the enormous towering appearance of the stack as you stand at its base, the overgrown and very much inhabited nature. All provide a very exciting experience. However, from the viewpoint of the climbing itself its absolutely awful. Traumatic even! Crumbling holds under hand and foot, sand raining down into your eyes during the crux if you try and place anything above head height, uncertainty about how well gear would hold on this rock type, difficult rope management (especially for the crux pitch trying to avoid drag around that first roof as you get started), getting vomited on by birds and the worst part (for me at least) was the constant anxiety at every ledge you move up to as you cautiously peer over the edge praying that you’re not face to face with a Fulmar that might projectile vomit some rotten fish in your face and startle you to the point that you fall and take a whip on to the aforementioned gear... I did see a puffin nested about 15m from where we managed to get to which was cool. Shame we didn’t get any closer, but c’est la vie. I bloody love puffins!