Every year as soon as the clocks spring forward one hour to record the arrival of summer, the rock climbers dust off their ropes, crabs, pitons and rockclimbing shoes and head out to the coast of Clare and onto the rocks.

Rockclimbing is an activity practised by up to 20 members of the Clare Outdoor Club and the numbers are gradually building every year.

The majority of the club’s activities take place in the Burren at Ballyryan or Allidiewith with regular weekend trips to various cliffs.

Contact Andrew Carden for more information.

Birds Nesting

The arrival of the climbing season also sees the arrival of the bird nesting season so, in accordance with the Wildlife Act, climbers need to take particular care not to disturb nesting birds on crags. Disturbance can mean that a nest is abandoned by the distressed parent birds, causing eggs to fail to hatch, or chicks to starve to death. Such disturbance is easier than you might realise when climbing in the vicinity of a nest so it is best to avoid the crag altogether if you see an occupied nest, or if you notice repeated calling, agitation or aggressive behaviour in adult birds. There are always other crags where you can climb.

Every year just a few of the popular Burren climbing crags are used by breeding peregrine and ravens, which often return to the same nest year after year. Ravens are currently nesting on the Skull Slab at Ailwee so this crag should be avoided until further notice. However they do not appear to have nested at Ballyryan this year.

Please let other climbers know if you are aware of occupied nest sites at other crags. (Rockclimbing message board). Once the young are fully fledged it is usually ok to resume climbing at a crag. In the case of ravens this is generally early May. Peregrines nest later and occupied crags should be avoided until early August.