The Gallery is an outstanding new crag on the North Wales coast. The rock is Quart Enstatite Micro-Diorite (so there!). The crag is partly quarried with slabby starts, sometimes powerful and technical finishes with pitches up to 30m in length. There are lots of lay-away moves and undercuts and the friction is excellent. Apparently fragile fins are solid! Be wary of some very sharp edges, many of which have been blunted deliberately, but care with the ropes is still required.
The crag consists of three main areas:
- A lower tier which rises from the sandy beach and has some unrecorded trad. routes.
- The main wall which is immediately above the footpath/cycle-way with sport routes of up to 30m. The crag faces north west and gets the sun from mid afternoon.
- The upper crag, which has two brilliant routes and which is north-facing.
Its is thought that the main crag is worked out apart from the extreme left wing. Further additions between the existing routes would lead to overcrowding and compromise the independence of the existing routes. There is some potential for more routes on the upper crag but extreme care would be needed on routes further to the right of the existing routes because of the possibility of dislodging rocks onto the cycle-way below.
Routes are graded for on-sight ascents with no prior knowledge.
Approach
When heading from Llandudno on the A55, pass through the Conwy Tunnel and pull up and park at a lay-by (with building) just before the Penmanbach tunnels. Cross over the duel carriageway (7b+ on-sight) and walk towards Bangor on the cycle-way/footpath for 5 minutes to below the crag. From Bangor, park in the lay-by after the Penmanmawr roundabout near to the bridge over the railway.
The upper crag is reached by following the walls 100m before the Llandudno-bound tunnel exit.
All of the routes were led and equipped by Colin Struthers and Nadim Siddiqui, with assistance from Jim Burton, Nick Colton and Kevin Stephens.