Intro to Glendalough
Glendalough or (Valley of the Two lakes in Irish) is a very well known valley for many reasons, its Glaciated U-Shaped Valley is studied by many Junior Cert Geography students all around the country, its monastic settlement is famous worldwide, but within the climbing community it is famous for providing some of the best bouldering available in Ireland, there are also rope climbs at Glendalough but we are going to focus mainly on the bouldering.
The Geology
The geology of Glendalough is very interesting, the two main rock types present in Glendalough are Granite and Mica Schist. Granite is the same type of rock that is present in Yosemite Valley which we talked about last week ( http://matthewsblogs98.blogspot.ie/2014/11/climbing-in-yosemite.html ). Granite has very good properties for climbing, it is hard and easy to grip and so it makes for very entertaining boulder problems. The other rock type found in Glendalough is Mica Schist, Mica Schist is a metamorphic rock that has metamorphosed from rocks such as shale and mud stone, although it is a common rock in this area nearly none of the boulders are Mica Schist.
The Climbing
There are over 100 problems to be attempted in Glendalough and vary in difficulty from easy to desperately hard (the hardest is "Wonderland" 8b) I recommend that if you are planning a bouldering trip to the valley go in Spring or Autumn in order to get the best of the weather while avoiding the tourist rush in Summer.As far as accommodation for climbers goes, if you are tough enough you will be quite happy with the Irish Mountaineering Club Hut which is located a 40 minute walk from the boulders and will cost you E7.50, but you will need your own sleeping bag, otherwise there are loads of B+Bs in the area if you would like a bit more luxury.
Enjoy the climbing!
By the way if you would like a bit more information on the Geography of Glendalough, I did a field Report on it as a school project, I got a good mark so check it out!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/
Sources
http://theshortspan.com/features/boulderinginglendalough.htm
http://theshortspan.com/index.php/the-hardest-problems-in-ireland/
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