Cornwall May 2026
- Jake Griffiths
- May 17
- 3 min read
The May bank holiday rolled around and that meant one thing – it was time for the AMC to make the trip down to Cornwall for some sea cliff adventures. 17 of us set off to St Just for a weekend of climbing, walking, pasties and pints in the rugby club.
The action kicked off on the Friday with Anthony and Jack making it down early and enjoying a sunny afternoon at Bosigran where they ticked off Venusburg in the sunshine. Meanwhile myself, Dan and Geoff made a quick stop off at Roche Rock on the way down after work to squeeze in an ascent of the Lord Falmouth before it got dark (thanks to Dan for taking the lead after I brought 2 right shoes to the crag).
Saturday had a less than ideal weather forecast but the morning was dry so it was all systems go! The climbers split up with some heading to Bosigran while some others opted for Sennen. The Bosigran crew got some good ascents in on the thankfully dry rock, but then a bit of rain started to fall. This was just a passing shower and would be fine right? Wrong! The heavens opened while all the climbers were on the cliff. Anna and Vianney managed to escape safely after the first pitch of Alison Rib, myself and Dan escaped before the roof of Thin Wall Special (which had water running down it by this point). Jack took a fall off the soaking wet slab of Nameless but thankfully Anthony and Geoff were nearby and able to drop a rope and everyone got off safe (but not so dry) – time to retreat to the Gurnards Head pub to try to dry off and warm up!
Meanwhile the Sennen crew were much more sensible and after having got a route in had retreated to a café when the rain started and so managed to avoid a drenching. But most sensible of all Anne, Julian and Lauren had opted to go for a walk around Sennen to spot some shipwrecks and even finished off with a session in the beachside sauna (I wasn’t jealous at all).
We woke to a wet Sunday morning so there was a lot of hanging around the rugby club. Fortunately the rugby club had a packed day of activities with buggy racing on the road, a car boot sale and a dog show, so we had plenty to keep us entertained.
The sun made it out for the afternoon so the climbers made it out with a small group of us heading to Kenidjack, another to Carn Barra and Zawn Kellys and a third to Sennen and we all managed to get in some good single pitch climbing before an evening at the clubhouse with BBQ, takeaway and beers. (A word of warning – the pocket of your down jacket isn’t the best place to transport your raw eggs – as Adam learnt the hard way)
We woke on Monday to a day that promised wall-to-wall sunshine and a desire to make the most of it. After packing away our tents (apart from Lauren and Will who were lucky enough to be staying another night), we set out to finally have a full day in the sun. The group split up again with one lot going to Chair Ladder and another making their way to Bosigran. The Chair Ladder team ticked off a number of classics including Seal Slab, Pegasus, Kittiwake, South Face Direct and Excelsior (which rumour has it I may have spent a good time dangling on the rope on – I blame forgetting my jamming gloves and a still wet jamming crack!). The Bosigran team also had problems with persistent wetness but still managed to tick off classic pitches such like Anvil Chorus, Little Brown Jug, Simple Simon and Ledge Route. All in all a fantastic day to round off another fantastic Cornwall trip!
You can check out loads more photos of the weekend on the AMC May in Pictures Folder (https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipN_yUVVFdU-402wUh6_Sqdw1KsFZf-edFHW44l2pNxCHJGhsZker7g6BpRG8r63pA)
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