Stone Country – Landscapes and Lifescapes

Bouldering might feel just appear to be just a bit of athletic fun on some rock, but some take it very seriously indeed ... even archaeologists. The latest issue of the academic journal 'World Archaeology' features an article on the idea of 'counter archaeology', as practised by boulderers at Dumbarton Rock (amongst other visitors such as graffiti taggers/artists). It's always worthwhile taking some reflective time to consider what our activities mean in the greater scheme of things, and how they might appear to someone who has never witnessed this activity. In more imaginative contexts, some might see bouldering as 'costly signalling behaviour' (showing off), or consider it a pure form of non-representational theory (talk to John Hutchinson ), and some might just call it 'bonsai mountaineering' (my term). Anyway, it was all a collective effort instigated by some kind archaeologists at ACCORD, an enlightened group of enthusiastic people who beli...

Dumby gets an academic approach in this article published by World Archaeology . This multi-authored article was the result of archaeologists, climbers and heritage professionals examining the meaning of Dumby for those who frequent the place, especially climbers. Abstract The notion of counter-archaeology is echoed by the opposing faces of the volcanic plug of Dumbarton Rock, Scotland. On the one side is the ‘official’ heritage of Dumbarton Castle, with its upstanding seventeenth-century military remains and underlying occupation evidence dating back to at least the eighth century ad. On the other side lies a landscape of climbing, bouldering and post-industrial abandonment. This paper develops counter-archaeology through the climbing traditions and boulder problems at Dumbarton Rock and brings to the surface marginalized forms of heritage. Climbers and archaeologists have co-authored the paper as part of a collaborative project, which challenges the binary trope of researcher and...

When I first arrived at Dumbarton Rock, I never thought the dramatic geology I saw  –  the square-cut overhanging main faces, the giant beaked boulders, the moody facets of black and orange rock  –   were anything but solid and unchanging. I never thought there would be a character to the rock other than its intimidating immediacy and its industrial ‘clash and bang’ of sheer physicality and  its contextual setting in the post-industrial decline of  Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven .    Maybe that’s what happens on all first visits to a climbing venue  –  a kind of heightened sense of the place’s physical presence  –  but if you spend years repeating visits to a place, it becomes a more temporal or invisible thing, in fact it almost vanishes before your eyes, first impressions rubbed out, to be replaced by folded-in memories of faced-down failures and subtle successes, and countless other small details. In fact f...

What is the future of climbing topos and guides? It's a question which has been evolving rapidly in the last decade as we get more and more used to accessing data online, or viewing topos on our phones or tablets. Guidebooks, like vinyl records, are collectable objects and still useful and resilient formats for getting the beta you need.The Youtube/Vimeo revolution has changed bouldering beta for good and a realtime topo might include a video, a description, and, perhaps now a 3D model of the boulder. In collaboration with the Glasgow-based ACCORD project, we've been exploring the conceptual and practical challenges (and the usefulness) of exploring our sporting heritage in a 3D-modelling project. This has involved collaborative approaches to record the climbing and geology at Dumbarton Rock. The history of climbing at Dumbarton is now rich enough, and has built up enough generational layers of development, that a statement of intent has to be made in terms of voicing ou...

Well, it's done! The Eagle Bloc scanned for full photogrammetry 3D, the crag laser-scanned, some RTI-based imagery of the graffiti and carvings and the Pongo face 3D'd as well. We'll post the results shortly once I figure out the plug-ins for the 3D modelling, but it was an impressive process and my thanks go out to the ACCORD project which initiated this digital heritage of Dumby climbing. We'll archive all the results. Thanks to all who turned up to help: Sven, Alex, John, Eddie and Frank in particular, there was some good storytelling at the Focus group sessions and the weather was terrific throughout to allow for those hundreds of photographs!  The ACCORD group led by Alex Hale, Mhairi Maxwell and Sian Jones  Alex and Sven doing some photogrammetry work on a pole Kevin ignoring us and doing some climbing...the reason for the project

I have been going on for years about Dumbarton Rock being one of our finest examples of modern 'sporting heritage', a kind of living history and an example of community 'ownership' (I use this in the least possessive sense) through simple occupation and use, under the shadow of more static heritage that is purely conservatory (I mean no disrespect to Historic Scotland and the castle!). It's how we create identity after all and is part of the greater weave of history, but seen from the ground-up and the everyday, which is an approach that is gradually displacing the top-down perspective of traditional historiography. One of the most exciting projects around is a community-history project with the acronym ACCORD, which stands for Archaeology Community Co-Production of Research Data. What does this mean? Well, for climbers, it means we are gathering a group in early July to photograph the boulders and maybe the crag, with loaned equipment and cameras, to create...

Dumbarton Rock, or Dumby as it is known to locals, is Scotland's prime urban bouldering venue. This is the first guide to document the complete bouldering at Dumby: the straight-ups, the traverses, the eliminates, the link-ups, the circuits and the test pieces, as well as the projects ... if you're visiting Dumby for the first time, or have become smitten with the place as a local venue, this is the guide for you! Photo-topos, circuit maps, extended descriptions and historical notes provide the first complete tick-list for bouldering at Dumbarton - even getting to 100 complete problems will seem like an achievement, whilst ticking all 300 would be a world-class first. This notoriously fickle and difficult venue can safely be described as the spiritual home of Scottish bouldering. We have stock available direct at £5.99 plus a little PandP from the bookshop page. Please note stock will be sent out up to Dec 23rd, thereafter only from January 6th, thanks.

Dumbarton FC have made an access statement about parking at Dumby: "We are still experiencing continual gypsy/traveller encampments and as such bollards will be installed within the next few days. The bollards will be up whenever the stadium is closed which will include weekends and the hours of 4pm-9am weekdays when the stadium is open." Gilbert Lawrie, Dumbarton FC. Also, a new link-up on the Home Rule boulder: Art Attack 7b Cobra sending Art Attack at Dumby 7b? from Chris Houston on Vimeo .

Latest update on Dumbarton and the clean-up in a fine piece of film by Chris Houston, capturing some of the problems as well  - post-graffiti...

Just to let everyone know that Historic Scotland, who own the boulders and crag at Dumbarton Rock, have agreed to clean the boulders of graffiti, overseen by climbers so no holds are damaged. After excellent concern for our sporting heritage and good consultancy (thanks to Ian Lambie of Historic Scotland and Andrea Partridge at the MCOS!), I'll be attending the first day of cleaning on Monday 11th March. I would like to ask climbers and boulderers to avoid climbing here in this period while the cleaning goes on, as for safety reasons parts of the crag and boulders will have to be cordoned off. I would ask all to respect the arrangements we've made on behalf of climbers, as much good work has gone on in the background to arrange the best form of cleaning and restoration. Unfortunately much of the 'historic' graffiti has vanished behind modern graffiti, so it's impossible to restore the lower 'layers' - it will all just have to come off. This is a good o...

As a lot of climbers have been kept away from the Rock by these incessant westerly rain fronts, I thought some might be interested in reading a little about the History of Dumbarton Rock while it wallows in drippy green misery. I've been working on a climbing history to the Rock but this will be included in the new Clyde & Argyll guide soon. This is what happened at Dumby before we slipped our rock boots on...