Sadly, the Rockley Wall (one of the Castle’s original walls) is no longer fit for purpose and the panels are increasingly becoming beyond repair. As a result, we have taken the decision to retire the existing wall and give it a full refurbishment. 

 

For many years the fibreglass features have served us well, a key feature of the centre enjoyed by thousands of climbers over many years it has stood at the Castle. No doubt those “feature only” routes have seen plenty of epics! 

 

But those many years of many climbers takes its toll, and we’re sad to say that for the Rockley Wall it is time to retire. 

 

We’ve got a very short window of opportunity to take on this pretty large project. The pandemic and its period of uncertainty, closures, last-minute changerounds and quick fixes have meant that we’ve not been able to follow through with the major developments we’d had planned in recent years. This marks a return to us being able to create the centre we want, and the chance to squeeze in one of the many things on our list was too good for us to pass up! It means a tight turnaround on this work to make sure it’s ready before the new year. It means being bold and doing it at a very short notice. But it’s going to be worth it. 

 

- From Wednesday 30th November the Rockley wall, Lower Traverse wall, plus lines 77, 78, 94 and 95 of the Quarry will be closed. 

- The far end of the Panels boulder wall and the Campus board will also be closed. 

- The Quarry top rope area can still be accessed via the left hand end of the panels bouldering wall. Most of the Quarry will stay open for climbing although lines 77, 78, 94 and 95 of the Quarry will be closed. 

- The work area will have plywood hoarding all around and full height tarpaulins.

- Please follow all signage and respect the boundaries whilst we carry out this work. 

 

 

- Removing an old wall is never pretty but the Rockley wall might be particularly tricky. 

- We should expect noise throughout the project. During the build it will be the usual wall build noise from drills and timber cutting. 

- We will endeavour to keep dust, noise and other disruption to an absolute minimum throughout. Dust sheets and tarpaulins will be used and we will cease work at 6pm to prevent disruption during our peak hours. 

 

 

- We care deeply about the sustainability of our centre and are keep to ensure the panels are rehomed if possible and disposed of responsibly if not. 

- The middle of the existing wall should hopefully be able to be un-bolted into small panels and we will try to ensure this is donated to a charity or similar. If you know of a project that could make use of this please contact us on mike@castle-climbing.co.uk 

 

That’s all for now. For more information keep an eye on our Instagram and Facebook for updates on our progress.