Old Man of Hoy

Last updated

Old Man of Hoy
Sea stack
The Old Man of Hoy, Orkney - geograph.org.uk - 8878.jpg
The Old Man of Hoy from the north
Orkney Islands UK relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Location within Orkney
Coordinates: 58°53′09″N3°25′59″W / 58.88570°N 3.43299°W / 58.88570; -3.43299
Grid position HY 17635 00779
Location Hoy, Orkney, Scotland
Geology Old Red Sandstone sea stack
Elevation137 metres (449 feet)
First ascent Chris Bonington, Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey, 19 July 1966

The Old Man of Hoy is a 449-foot (137-metre) sea stack on Hoy, part of the Orkney archipelago off the north coast of Scotland. Formed from Old Red Sandstone, it is one of the tallest stacks in the United Kingdom. The Old Man is popular with climbers, and was first climbed in 1966. Created by the erosion of a cliff through hydraulic action some time after 1750, the stack is not more than a few hundred years old, but may soon collapse into the sea.

Contents

Geography

The Old Man stands close to Rackwick Bay on the west coast of Hoy, in Orkney, Scotland, and can be seen from the Scrabster to Stromness ferry. [1] From certain angles it is said to resemble a human figure. [2]

Winds are faster than 8 metres per second (18 mph) for nearly a third of the time, and gales occur on average for 29 days a year. Combined with the depth of the sea, which quickly falls to 60 metres (200 ft), high-energy waves on the western side of Hoy lead to rapid erosion of the coast. [3]

Geology

The Old Man of Hoy is a red sandstone stack, perched on a plinth of basalt rock, and one of the tallest sea stacks in the UK. [4] [5] It is separated from the mainland by a 60-metre (200 ft) chasm strewn with debris, and has nearly vertical sides with a top just a few metres wide. [3] The rock is composed of layers of soft, sandy and pebbly sandstone and harder flagstones of Old Red Sandstone, giving the sides a notched and slab-like profile. [6] [7]

History

The Old Man of Hoy in 1817, when it had two legs William Daniell Old Man of Hoy (colour).jpg
The Old Man of Hoy in 1817, when it had two legs

The Old Man is probably less than 250 years old and may be in danger of collapsing. [3] [8] The stack is not mentioned in the Orkneyinga saga, written c.1230, and on the Blaeu map of 1600, a headland exists at the point where the Old Man is now. [8] The McKenzie map of Hoy of 1750 similarly shows a headland but no stack, but by 1819 the Old Man had been separated from the mainland. [8] William Daniell sketched the sea stack at this time as a wider column with a smaller top section and an arch at the base, from which it derived its name. [8] [9]

Sometime in the early nineteenth century, a storm washed away one of the legs leaving it much as it is today, although erosion continues. [8] By 1992, a 40-metre (130 ft) crack had appeared in the top of the south face, leaving a large overhanging section that will eventually collapse. [3] [5] [8]

Human activity

Climbing

The stack was first climbed by mountaineers Chris Bonington, Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey in 1966. [10] [11] From 8–9 July 1967, an ascent featured in The Great Climb, a live BBC three-night outside broadcast, which had around 15 million viewers. [12] This featured three pairs of climbers: Bonington and Patey repeated their original route, whilst two new lines were climbed by Joe Brown and Ian McNaught-Davis and by Pete Crew and Dougal Haston. [13]

In 1997, Catherine Destivelle made a solo ascent of the Old Man of Hoy; she did so while four months pregnant; her climb is captured in the 1998 climbing film, Rock Queen. [14] This climb was filmed and has often been credited as the first solo ascent, but the Old Man had previously been soloed in October 1985 by Scots climber Bob Duncan; like Destivelle, he backroped the second, crux pitch, though he also backroped the top pitch because "it looked harder from below than it turned out to be". [15]

The Old Man of Hoy, 2004 Old man of hoy.jpg
The Old Man of Hoy, 2004

Red Széll became the first blind person to climb the Old Man, despite suffering from retinitis pigmentosa that left him with 5% vision. With assistance from Martin Moran and Nick Carter, he scaled the stack in 2013. [16] [17] [18]

The youngest person to climb the Old Man is Edward Mills, who was 8 years old when he completed the climb in 4 hours 55 minutes on 9 June 2018, to raise money for the charity Climbers Against Cancer as his mother had terminal breast cancer. He was accompanied by his trainers, Ben West and Cailean Harker. [19]

In 2019, Jesse Dufton became the first blind climber to lead an ascent on Old Man of Hoy. [20] The climb was the subject of the 2020 film Climbing Blind. [21] [22]

The youngest female to climb the Old Man of Hoy is Sophia Wood, who was 10 years old when she completed the climb in just over 3 hours in June 2023. She traveled from the southeast of Virginia USA to Hoy Scotland UK and completed the climb with her two guides Edmund Hastings and Alex Riley. Sophia used this climb to start a fundraiser to help introduce climbing to kids with the "Boys and Girls Club" in her local area. [23]

There are seven routes up the stack, the most commonly used of which is the original landward facing East Face Route, graded E1 5b (Extremely Severe). [24] [25] A log book in a Tupperware container is buried in a cairn on the summit, as an ascensionists' record. [18] [26] As many as fifty ascents of the stack are made each year. [26]

Highline

Highline walk of Alex Schulz Slackline at Old Man of Hoy.jpg
Highline walk of Alex Schulz

On 10 July 2017, Alexander Schulz completed a highline walk to and from the summit, at 137 m (449 ft) above the sea on a line 180 m (200 yd) long. [27]

BASE jumping

Roger Holmes, Gus Hutchison-Brown, and Tim Emmett made the first BASE jump from the stack on 14 May 2008. [28] Hutchinson-Brown died 11 days later during a jump in Switzerland. [29] On 27 July 2019, two Poles, Filip Kubica and Dominik Grajner repeated BASE jumped from the top. [30]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoy, Orkney</span> Island in the Orkney Islands group

Hoy is an island in Orkney, Scotland, measuring 143 square kilometres (55 sq mi) – the second largest in the archipelago, after Mainland. A natural causeway, the Ayre, links the island to the smaller South Walls; the two islands are treated as one entity by the UK census. Hoy is also the name of a hamlet in the northwest of the island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Bonington</span> British mountaineer (born 1934)

Sir Christian John Storey Bonington, CVO, CBE, DL is a British mountaineer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Brown (climber)</span> English mountaineer and rock climber (1930–2020)

Joseph Brown was an English mountaineer who was regarded as an outstanding pioneer of rock climbing during the 1950s and early 1960s. Together with his early climbing partner, Don Whillans, he was one of a new breed of British post-war climbers who came from working class backgrounds in contrast to the upper and middle class professionals who had dominated the sport up to the Second World War. He became the first person to climb the third-highest mountain in the world when he was on the 1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition. Some of his climbs were televised and he assisted with mountaineering scenes in several films; Brown died on 15 April 2020 at the age of 89.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solo climbing</span> Style of climbing performed alone

Solo climbing, or soloing, is a style of climbing in which the climber climbs a route alone, without the assistance of a belayer. By its very nature, it presents a higher degree of risk to the climber, and in some cases, is considered extremely high risk.

Thomas Walton Patey was a Scottish climber, mountaineer, doctor and writer. He was a leading Scottish climber of his day, particularly excelling on winter routes. He died in a climbing accident at the age of 38. He was probably best known for his humorous songs and prose about climbing, many of which were published posthumously in the collection One Man's Mountains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fair Head</span> Dolerite mountain cliff, Northern Ireland

Fair Head or Benmore is a 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) long, 200-metre (660 ft) high, mountain cliff, close to the sea, at the north-eastern corner of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The cliff's sheer and vertical 100-metre (330 ft) high dolerite rock face is shaped into distinctive vertical columns like organ pipes, which formed 60 million years ago when a sill of igneous rock was injected between horizontal Carboniferous sediments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Man of Stoer</span> Stack in Highland, Scotland, UK

The Old Man of Stoer is a 60-metre-high (200 ft) sea stack of Torridonian sandstone in Sutherland, Scotland, close to the villages of Culkein and Stoer and the nearby Stoer Head Lighthouse. It is a popular climbing route.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave MacLeod</span> Scottish rock climber

Dave MacLeod is a Scottish rock climber, ice climber, mixed climber, and climbing author. MacLeod was the second-ever person free solo a 8b+ (5.14a) graded route, and for climbing one of the hardest traditional climbing routes in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sgorr Ruadh</span> Mountain in Scotland

Sgorr Ruadh is a mountain between Strath Carron and Glen Torridon in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. It is located in Coire Lair near Achnashellach along with two other mountains, Beinn Liath Mhòr and Fuar Tholl, and is often climbed together with one or both of these other mountains.

Michael Edward Borg Banks MBE was a British soldier, adventurer, climber and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ailladie</span> Limestone sea cliff in the Burren, Ireland

Ailladie, is an 800-metre-long (2,600 ft) west-facing limestone sea cliff, that varies in height from 8 metres (26 ft) to 35 metres (115 ft), situated on the coast of The Burren in County Clare, Ireland. Ailladie is one of Ireland's most highly regarded rock-climbing locations, particularly for high technical grade single pitch traditional climbing routes and deep-water soloing routes. It is also a location for shore-angling competitions, and, with its cliffs and view of the Aran Islands, is a popular photography stop for tourists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yesnaby</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Yesnaby is a historic township in Sandwick, on the west coast of Orkney Mainland, Scotland, south of Skara Brae. It is renowned for its spectacular Old Red Sandstone coastal cliff scenery which includes sea stacks, blowholes, geos and frequently boiling seas. A car park, coastal trail and interpretive panels serve visitors. The area is popular with climbers because of Yesnaby Castle, a two-legged sea stack just south of the Brough of Bigging. The stack is sometimes described as a smaller version of the Old Man of Hoy. Yesnaby is also one of the very few places where Primula scotica grows.

Malcolm Smith is a Scottish rock climber and competition climber who won the bouldering IFSC Climbing World Cup in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Destivelle</span> French rock climber and mountaineer

Catherine Destivelle is a French rock climber and mountaineer who is considered one of the greatest and most important female climbers in the history of the sport. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s for sport climbing by winning the first major female climbing competitions, and by being the first female to redpoint a 7c+/8a sport climbing route with Fleur de Rocaille in 1985, and an 8a+ (5.13c) route with Choucas in 1988. During this period, she was considered the strongest female sport climber in the world along with Lynn Hill, however, in 1990 she retired to focus on alpine climbing.

Ron Fawcett is a British rock climber and rock climbing author who is credited with pushing the technical standards of British rock climbing in traditional, sport, bouldering and free soloing disciplines, in the decade from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, and of pioneering the career of being a full-time professional rock climber. At the end of the 1970s to the early 1980s, Fawcett was widely considered the best and most notable rock climber in Britain.

Jean-Baptiste Tribout, or J.B. Tribout is a French rock climber and competition climber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Drongs</span>

The Drongs are a group of sea stacks off the coast of Hillswick Ness, Northmavine, Shetland, Scotland. They lie to the west of the Isle of Westerhouse in St Magnus Bay. They have been described as "a focus of interest from all surrounding parts, including Eshaness", from which they are the most readily viewed, and as such are considered an icon of Eshaness, along with the famous Dore Holm.

Jesse Dufton is a British mountaineer, paraclimber and member of the Great Britain paraclimbing team since 2017. In 2019, Dufton became the first blind climber to lead an ascent on Old Man of Hoy in the Orkney Islands. The climb, and Dufton's story, were the subject of the 2020 film Climbing Blind. Dufton has rod-cone dystrophy; he was born with 20% central vision which has deteriorated to 1% today.

<i>Rhapsody</i> (climb) Traditional climbing route in Dumbarton, Scotland

Rhapsody is a 35-metre (115 ft) long traditional climbing route up a thin crack on a slightly overhanging vertical basalt rock face on Dumbarton Rock, in Scotland. When Scottish climber Dave MacLeod made the first free ascent in 2006, it became Britain's first-ever E11-graded route, and at the grade of 5.14c (8c+), Rhapsody was the world's hardest traditional route, and set a grade milestone in traditional climbing that stood for over a decade until the ascent of Tribe at grade E11-12 5.14d (9a) in 2019 and of Bon Voyage at grade E12 5.14d (9a) in 2024.

References

Citations

  1. ↑ "Facts about the Old Man of Hoy". NorthLink Ferries. Archived from the original on 18 January 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  2. ↑ Barrett, Kate (1963). "My Old Man". Radio Scotland. Archived from the original on 27 January 2019. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Hansom, Jim (2007). "West Coast of Orkney" (PDF). JNCC.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ↑ Seward 2011, p. 230.
  5. 1 2 "The Old Man of Hoy". Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  6. ↑ Hansom, James D.; Evans, David J. A. (1995). "The old man of Hoy". Scottish Geographical Magazine. 111 (3): 172–174. doi:10.1080/00369229518736960.
  7. ↑ "Old Man of Hoy". scottishgeology.com. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jim Hansom. "Old Man of Hoy". Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  9. ↑ "William Daniell: The Old Man of Hoy". Tate. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
  10. ↑ "1966 climb: The Old Man of Hoy". Mountaineering Council of Scotland. Archived from the original on 10 August 2009. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  11. ↑ Thompson 2011 , p. 231
  12. ↑ "The Great Climb". BBC Scotland. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  13. ↑ Latter 2009 , p. 452
  14. ↑ "Rock Queen (featuring Catherine Destivelle)". Vimeo. 2 March 2013. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  15. ↑ Hall, Tasha (21 July 2022). "The stunning Scottish landmark that could disappear 'overnight'". Scottish Daily Express. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  16. ↑ Liz Roberts (30 June 2013). "Blind climber Red Széll: Old Man of Hoy ascent was dream come true". grough. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  17. ↑ Tina Gardner (28 June 2013). "Old Man of Hoy success for blind climber". British Mountaineering Council. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  18. 1 2 Red Szell. "The Blind Man of Hoy". UKClimbing. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  19. ↑ "Boy, 8, youngest to climb Old Man of Hoy". BBC. 10 June 2018. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  20. ↑ "Blind climber leads an ascent of the Old Man of Hoy". BBC News. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  21. ↑ Michael Hogan (20 May 2020). "Climbing Blind, review: an uplifting portrait of a man who won't be held down". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  22. ↑ Rebecca Nicholson (20 May 2020). "Climbing Blind review – a tale of tenacity, adaptation and hope". The Guardian . Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  23. ↑ "Youngest Girl to climb Old Man of Hoy!!! Orkney Islands, Scotland UK", self, 13 June 2023, retrieved 13 June 2023
  24. ↑ "The Old Man of Hoy". orkney-seastacks.co.uk. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  25. ↑ Chris Mellor. "The Old Man of Hoy: the routes". UKClimbing. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  26. 1 2 Grylls 2009 , p. 234
  27. ↑ "Balancing act - the high wire walk to the Old Man of Hoy". BBC. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  28. ↑ Roger Holmes. "Old Man Of Hoy - BASE 1st Descent". YouTube . Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  29. ↑ "Angus Hutchison-Brown". The Scotsman. 1 July 2008. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  30. ↑ Filip Kubica. "Old Man Of Hoy - Climb & B.A.S.E." YouTube . Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2019.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.