Fairhead Trad Festival June 2023

Lisa and I went to the Fairhead trad festival back over the first weekend in June. Here’s a few of our pics to whet the appetite for a meet next year perhaps?

We flew from Bristol to Belfast with Easyjet then hired a car for the hours drive north to Ballycastle. The ferry and diesel to drive would have been extortionate.

The festival itself is £45 for three nights in the campsite on Seans farm and two evening talks. The meet is hosted by the Dal Riada climbing club who are around during the day at most of the main crags in club t shirts.

There were fixed ropes left in situ for general use so we managed to get away with one hold bag and a regular trad rack. I doubled up cams on one route but could have made do with one set and large hexes.

We stayed in a rather comfy airbnb in Ballycastle and just went to the talk on Saturday, Sean Veilleneuve O Driscoll on his solo moonwalk traverse, highly entertaining.

Seans barn

Evening talk
Looking down Ballycastle descent gully towards the classic VS (with climber) Girona
Being stared at by the Rathlin Wall
Black thief at The Prow area
An almost deserted Giants Causeway, just down the coast.
Looking down the ‘Massive effing corner’ of Equinox E2 5B.
Terrain near the Giants Causeway, columnar joint standing like a Cornish chimney (not sure of the name)