Ravenswick Quarry – An OK Mid Week Venue

I remember my very first outdoor climbing trip like it was only yesterday. My brother and I bought a rack between us and just went. David didn’t have much of a clue, and I had even less. Downright dangerous really. The venue for this first climb was Ravenswick Quarry, near Kirbymoorside in North Yorkshire. The other night I happened to be in the vicinity, so David and I went for another go.

Introduction

Ravenswick Quarry has been climbed since sometime in the early 60‘s. Apparently most of the harder lines were put up in the early 90’s though there were some more added as recently as 2008.

It features steep, magnesium limestone walls that get up to around 15m at the highest points. The rock is generally of reasonable quality though some of the routes have loose rock near the top. There’s a full guide over at this web site.

Many of the routes have iron stakes for a handy belay at the top. As with a lot of dry quarries with soil and vegetation at the top, it can get really dusty, so take care when soloing, especially the easy routes on the beginners wall, with their obvious ledges.

My overall impression of the venue is that it’s tired old place. Many of the routes in the corners were in dire need of some gardening before disappearing altogether. David managed to dislodge 2 mug-sized pieces of rock in the couple of hours that we spent there.

Our session

We only had a couple of hours so we started with a pretty easy lead (I won’t say which because I don’t want to embarrass my bro) but the easy lead turned into him getting disco leg, taking a respectable lob and me having to finish it up for him. Disaster! After that we moved onto some slightly harder climbing but with the protection of a top rope (partly because the chosen routes had loose rock at the top and partly because we didn’t have time to faff about placing gear). I managed a nice clean, ascent of Left Unconquerable 13m HVS 5a and ended up wishing I’d opted to lead it. I think my ‘styling’ of it was partly down to the fact that a group of people had just turned up with fish and chips and sat down to provide me with an audience, just as I was tying in!

In the end, I left happy and David left grumpy. It was a nice way to spend a couple of hours on a warm summer’s eve, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to return to Ravenswick Quarry.

Access and approach

Turn off the A170 at Keldolm, toward Hutton Le Hole. As you drive up the hill you’ll see a verge for parking on your right hand side. The entrance to the walk in is almost opposite, just down the hill a bit. It’s an obvious gap, step through and down through the trees to an obvious path and bear right. You’ll reach an opening with the quarry in less than a minute.