John wondered aloud about the bouldering crag Jim and I had “discovered” near Argaty. We decided to give it a go, and phoned Nick, who had been going to join us to rendezvous with us there.
Twenty minutes later we were making trails through the knee-deep grass of a meadow beside the Kilbride road on our way to what I’d fancifully named Crag Y. Later investigations had revealed the pair of blocs is named Greystones. One is too small to be of any interest, but the second has a gently impending wall just long and high enough to provide some interest to climbers of our limited bouldering abilities.
Greystones is composed of an unusual sound conglomerate. We surmised that the two blocs had originally been one large glacial erratic, as they sit on a rolling landscape of loam far from any similar outcrop. The puddingstone is surprisingly solid- our heavings on various pebbles dislodged only one in the course of our session. Nick appeared and we showed him our problems to date. We circumnavigated the big block, with easy traversing on the east side contrasting with the tricky fingery climbing on the west. Perhaps due to the pastoral setting in an arable field where generations of farm workers would have “taken aff stanes” the landings are very good; the only danger being the odd nettle.
Much to our surprise, it was 9.30 before we left for “rehydration” at the Tappit Hen in Dunblane. We’d had an unexpectedly enjoyable evening.