There are no records of the early development of Goldsborough. It is known that Bentley Beetham climbed here regularly during the 1930s, bringing parties of pupils from his Barnard Castle School. The adventures of the Goldsborough Club, as they were known, are recorded in the Fell and Rock guides to the Lake District. Most of the easier routes were recorded by members of the Eden Valley MC during the late 1970s during work on the first edition of the "North of England Rock Climbing Guide". Climbers from Barnard Castle were also active, in particular Paul Carling and Nigs Reader. Motivation was climbed by Reader in 1980, while Carling recorded many testing problems including Enigma, The Thornbird and Long Reach all prior to 1982. Ian Cummins added the bold Green Nigel in 1983 and Nick Clement climbed The Obsessed and Viola. During the mid 1980s Ian Cummins climbed the Footless Traverse on Thin Wall Buttress. Stu Ferguson climbed Flymantle on the North Facing section; Steve Crowe added the more serious variation. Bob Bennett, Steve Crowe and Mark Turner added many new problems while working on the first edition of Climbing in North East England.

Bob Bennett began developing the North East Boulders during 1995 with about 15 problems added by spring 1996. Steve Crowe recorded a number of traverses during the winter of 1995/96 including Askew and Upper Break, although it is possible they were climbed before. Due to bad fingers/work/kids/staleness etc., Ian Cummins had kept a low profile for 5-6 years before surfacing in 1997 to report the hardest problems at Goldsborough to date. Beth’s Traverse from July 1996 and George’s Roof climbed in July 1997 both are very hard but reasonably safe. Andrew Earl traversed the Super Low Level on the Thin Wall Buttress in January 1997 and Steve Dunning extended this in 2001. Dunning added three desperate combinations, Something Burning, Second Coming and Juxtapose around this time. In April 2002 Ian Cummins made the long overdue ascent of Holstein Friesian.

An eliminate that climbs the groove just left of the arête of In Search of Cheap Bananas. Keep out of that chimney.

Climb the arête just to the left of the Enigma groove. Thin, hard and excellent.

Starts as Enigma but climb straight up the wall.

Gain the foothold on the wall left of Corner Crack by a precarious layback move and reach gingerly for the top.

Start lying down well left of Indian Summer traverse right to finish up Indian Summer.

An eliminate up the centre of the short wall just right of Mawman, past an overlap to finish direct.

Climb the corner just right of Mawman, pull over the small roof and ascend the wall above. The SS is Font 5+.

Start up the right arête of Yoke Sike then hand traverse right to finish up the wall of Yawd Sike.

Start 2m right of Yoke Sike. Climb the reachy wall direct to the top.

A desperate direct start to The Obsessed. Start under the roof at the back and climb the roof to gain a good hold on the lip. (Continue up the arête as for The Obsessed for the Font 7c tick).

This problem, to the right of Fiddler on the Roof, is based on crossing the overhang by using the two small fragile pockets in the middle of the roof. A spotter is essential while working these desperate moves. If you gain the lip move slightly left into the groove and follow this to the top.

Start 7m right of Fiddler on the Roof. Climb onto a ledge below the roof. Make some awkward reaches round the roof trending right on poor holds to eventually reach a good jug. Continue directly up the wall to a faint crack line running up the steepest part of the buttress. Pull round the bulge at the crack line and finish steeply above.

This worthwhile route is much more than a variation finish to The Thornbird. Pull around the roof to the good hold, as for Thornbird, and then follow the ramp-line leftwards to finish, delicately, straight up to the left of the green seepage line.

A good problem - if you have the reach. Impossible if you don’t. Start right of Thornbird; gain the undercut arête left of Legless. Powerful laybacking might lead to a long reach and then the ledge! Continue up the overhanging arête above.

Start at the back of the roof using a good (often damp) jug on the right lip and feet on the block. A big move to a good hold in the roof leads to desperate moves and a finish up Legless.

Start below Loups Arête and traverse leftwards on the lowest break. Pull over the roof at the left end and traverse back rightwards with feet on the ledge below the roof. Either step off or continue up Borstal Breakout.

The wrinkled wall left of Fiddler’s Wall. Small sloping holds and technical knee and toe work.

The wall left of Fiddlers Arête is climbed direct. A few difficult moves soon lead to easier ground.

Starting in the middle of nowhere on the good flake make a hard slap to the slopers on the lip. Finish by traversing rightward on slopers before exiting up Fiddler’s Arête.

SDS. From the wobbly jugs traverse rightwards on slopers to the arête. Finish up Fiddler’s Arête.

Start as for Fiddler, but instead of moving left to the arête continue straight up the wall above. Committing.

A prominent ledge runs right of Fiddler. Gain its left hand end by an awkward mantelshelf then move up boldly using a very small crescent shape layaway. Finish on the right hand side of the blunt nose of Fiddler Direct.

A low level traverse of the buttress. Start left of Fiddlers Arête and hand traverse/heel hook the lowest break of the buttress to finish up Jumping Jack Flash.

An eliminate based on the previous traverse. Hands below the lowest break, feet anywhere, to finish up Jumping Jack Flash.

Traverse the Super Low Level starting under the roof left of Fiddler on appalling slopers and finishing by reversing Beth’s Traverse. Reachy!

Cross the roof direct two feet right of Fiddler Arête via some very poor edges. Then traverse the Super Low Level to the right arête and finish up Jumping Jack Flash).

A right to left traverse starting with Beth’s Traverse, then reverse the Super Low Level lip traverse and finish up Fiddlers Wall.

Gain the jug on Jumping Jack Flash – Footless – then footless all the way back down, left to Fiddler Arête and then up this footless to finish on the top.

A long problem. Crouching start at the back of the roof near Beth’s Traverse at two small flakes.  Out to reach the footholds of Beth’s Traverse. Make a big move up and left to the arête and finish as for Jumping Jack Flash.
Ian Cummins May 2000

Stretch up the blank looking wall between The Plagiarist and Bass Special.

Climb the overhanging scoop between the arête of Bass Special and the obvious ledge on Baldersdale Ale, a sitting start using the ledge for hands and the right foot (leg!) only.

Climbs the wall above the ledge, just right of Scream.

Start from the ledge of Baldersdale Ale and make a high level hand traverse leftwards to finish up the arête, or continue traversing to finish past Plagiarist.

Sit as far left as possible then traverse rightwards along the lip of the boulder, from the knee lock on the ledge reverse Gap Factor Nine, then continue across the front face as for Upper Break.

SS. The left arête.

The west face starting 3m right of the arête.

The entire boulder can be traversed in either direction, very low at times easy only on the north face.

The rib right of the arête.

Traverse the wall below the upper break from L-R, finish by climbing up at the good pocket.

Climbs the wall between the corner crack and Scoon Arête with a reachy start.

The wall right of Crackaway to pockets and a tricky finish.

The prominent arête right of Crackaway. Gain it from the right and climb the arête direct. Only Font 3 I’m afraid if you chicken out to the right.

Just right of Briscoe Crack and slightly cleaner is: -

Start up Howgill Wall to the flake then traverse right below the overhangs crossing Turner’s Eliminate to finish up Pitcher Crack.