Rock Climbing in Donegal

Situated in northwest Ireland, Donegal provides a huge variety of rock climbing. The map below shows the location of the main crags in Donegal that provide many single and multi-pitch routes by the sea, by the road, on the islands and in the mountains.

Map of the rock climbing areas in Donegal

Map of the rock climbing areas in Donegal

The information in the table has been extracted from the Rock Climbing in Donegal guidebook that describes the best 1,000 routes in Donegal and is available to buy from our shop.

Main rock climbing crags in Donegal
NoCragType of RockGrade RangeNo of Routes in GuidebookSingle or Multi-Pitch
1Muckross HeadSandstoneD to E756Single
2Sail RockQuartziteVS to E64Multi
3Malin BegQuartziteD to E457Both
4SkelpoonaghQuartziteD to E226Both
5An PortQuartziteM to XS45Both
6Crohy Head SouthQuartziteVD to E214Single
7Arranmore IslandGranite and QuartziteD to XS4Both
8Cruit IslandGraniteD to E4134Both
9Owey IslandGraniteVD to E696Both
10Gola IslandGraniteD to E5146Single
11Umfin IslandGraniteVD to E415Single
12Tor na DumhchaGraniteS to HVS9Single
13Tory IslandGraniteD to E116Both
14Lough DelshadeGraniteVD to E330Both
15Eglish ValleyGraniteVD to E370Both
16BingormsGraniteS to E423Both
17Poisoned GlenGraniteVD to E437Both
18MuckishQuartziteS to E413Single
19CrockanaffrinQuartziteHS to E422Single
20Malin HeadQuartzite, Gneiss, and GraniteVD to VS10Both
21Bunagee CoastQuartzite, Gneiss, and GraniteVD to E534Single
22Dunmore HeadQuartzite, Gneiss, and GraniteD to E436Single
23Warm Bay PointQuartzite, Gneiss, and GraniteVD to E214Single
24Dungloon (Kinnego)Quartzite, Gneiss, and GraniteVD to E544Both
25Port A DorisQuartzite, Gneiss, and GraniteD to HVS14Single

The rock climbing at Donegal is famous for its sea cliff climbing and includes around 100 sea stacks, and adventurous climbing on islands such as Gola, Cruit, Owey, Umfin, and Troy.


Gola Island is the epicentre of the Donegal climbing scene in a, remote, idyllic, and beautiful setting. Here there are well over 200 single pitch routes from Diff to E5 on granite sea cliffs and inland outcrops scattered throughout the island. Cruit Island provides over 300 single pitch routes on its many immaculate granite sea cliffs. These routes are less than 5 minutes’ walk from the car and are mostly in the VDiff to HVS grade range. Owey Island is only accessible by a short passenger ferry crossing from Cruit Island. Many of the routes require a slightly more adventurous approach as many have only been climbed a few times. All of these islands provide outstanding rock climbing in a wild, remote and truly beautiful setting. They also sit far out in County Donegal's rain shadow and it is not unusual to be climbing on these islands in bright sunshine and blue skies whilst the rest of the county is under a deluge of heavy rain.


Further south along the coast is the beautiful bay of An Port. Situated at the end of a 20km singletrack road is one of the most remote and unspoilt locations in Ireland. This adventurous climbing is home to 30 of the most outrageous sea stacks and very remote sea cliffs up to 200m high on quartzite rock.


The mountains of Donegal stretch across the entire county and provide an enormous amount of climbing. The two of the largest ranges are in the centre of the county and comprise of solid weathered mountain granite. The rest of the Donegal Mountains are quartzite and are at a slightly lower altitude and closer to the sea and its prevailing south west trade winds. The Poisoned Glen is one of the original climbing venues in Ireland with routes dating back to the 1950's and 1960's. The glen also plays host to Ireland largest continual rock face, The Bearnas Buttress, with routes up to 240m long. Most of the faces in the glen face North to North West and as such get very little sunlight that means a prolonged dry spell is required to catch the main faces in a dry climbable condition.