Climbonline.co.uk

Map Reference:  NY794706

History
Information for this guide has been largely plundered from ‘North of England Rock Climbs’ by Stewart Wilson ( Published by CORDEE) with the Author’s kind permission. A goodly selection of the climbs were repeated to check grades and route descriptions. In particular, these Lakeland boys were obviously hard men not given to overgrading and though overall grades are fine one or two of the technical grades are harsh even by Northumberland standards and the routes, though on very sound rock, have been so little climbed as to make prior cleaning a necessity. One new route was added during preparation for this guide, Andrew Earl hugging his way up the difficult Magician’s Nephew. A number of excellent boulder problems have also been discovered. The remainder of the routes recorded here are all the work of Pete Whillance, Pete Botterill and Dave Armstrong who in 1982 ‘blitzed the crag and recorded their efforts. However, this is not the full story as Whillance states “Some of the very easy lines must have been climbed before, but there is no evidence of this at all. The state of most of the routes leads me to think that probably nothing of VS or above had been previously climbed….” and, “Geoff Oliver admits to having pegged Rabbit Crack many years ago!” Chris Graham sprung into action with Worldline in 2006 followed shortly after by Dan Varian’s awesome Queen Kong. Many other boulder problems were recorded around this time.

Situation and Character
Queens Crag is situated in the wild and remote-feeling country north of the Roman Wall at Housesteads. It faces North towards the Wark Forest and a landscape of moss and cotton grass. A lonely place, but in good weather a fine place to climb. The escarpment is nowhere higher than 8 metres and because 6 metres is more or less constant, heights are omitted. Many of the climbs, though short, are of excellent quality but because few people have climbed there as a result of lack of information, star ratings have been used sparingly until such time as a consensus is reached.

Approaches and Access                updated
Follow the Military Road (B6318) west to where a gated track runs north from the road to Sewingshields Farm eight miles west of Chollerford. Permission to drive along this unmetalled road must be sought at the main farmhouse (found to the left side of the track as it rises and turns 90 degrees right 600 metres beyond the gate) where you may be asked to pay a small (£2) fee for parking. Continue past the farm house to park carefully up on the left verge beside the small copse. Follow the track on foot around a tight bend and down hill to cross a cattle grid one mile from the main road. Eventually, the east end of the crag can be seen 10 minutes easy walk to the west. Alternatively, park by the verge on the side road reached just before the track to Sewingshields. Do not park on the busy B6318 (The Military Road).


The Climbs
A drystone wall runs uphill to meet the right hand end of the main crag at a prominent cave (usual base of operations). From here and leftwards the Main Crag extends to a region of short easy slabs and cracks located by the presence of a large boulder on the slope below. This is the Main Boulder; the largest boulder on the crag. The section left of this more broken region is known as The Prows on account of the three jutting prows towards its left hand end. There is some boudering immediately the right of the drystone wall. The last recorded climbs are about 100m further right on a prominent pinnacle – The Rabbit Stone.
 

The Prows
This is the name given to the section of the crag to the left of the area of easy slabs and cracks. The three prows of rock after which the section is named are in the latter half of the described climbs, i.e. at the left hand end. The first climbs here are found on the first buttress to the left of the lower rocks described. This buttress is identified by a short crack on its front which ends in a sloping shelf. To the right of the crack is a curving rib.

Worldline V8 6c
Takes the roof underneath Prow One. Crawl to a sitting position at the back, grab an arête for each hand/foot and squeeze your way out to the blunt arête from which a dynamic move gains the arête. Finish as for Prow 1.
Chris Graham  6th August 2005

Queen Kong V11 7a ***
Prow 3 direct. A stunning line. After many people have asked: YES it does top out and YES it probably deserves an E grade!

Dan Varian making the first ascent of Queen Kong V11

Chris Graham making the first ascent of the sit start to Queen Kong V11

"I've completed the Queen Kong Sit Start in the cool shade of Queen's Crag. I'm giving it a very very tentative 8a+ (V12) although I think (the grades of) both the stand up and sitter require confirmation. The sit start adds about 5 more quality moves to the problem taking the total length to 20+ sustained moves - absolutely exhausting. On reaching the highball moves my legs were jelly and I had the best part of an asthma attack once I'd topped out!" Chris Graham 22nd July 2006
 

Arêtes Area
Just beyond the stone wall the escarpments continues with a series of short entertaining arêtes .

Isolated Block
Half way to the Rabbitstone is a large buttress with one traverse on it:



Rabbit Stone Buttress
The buttress behind the prominent pinnacle.

The Rabbit Stone
Plan your descent before climbing anything!



You Asked Ferret (Via Crack) S/VB 4b
 

Boulder on the Wall (Boulder 1)
The large boulder directly below the cave at the right end of the crag. It actually forms part of the drystone wall. The problems are described from right to left.

Main Boulder (Boulder 2)
The largest of the boulders, lying below the centre of the Main Crag. The north side presents a slabby face guarded by a bulging wall. The problems are described from right to left.

More photos here:  http://www.northumberlandbouldering.co.uk/queens.htm

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