High Sharpley
Formerly the 'Colditz of Charnwood'
Formerly the 'Colditz of Charnwood'
The lunar landscape of High Sharpley is located east of Cademan Wood, just across Swannymote Road. It is a sharp ridge of rock consisting of five craglets: Flake Crag, Reservoir Crag, Isolated Crag, Dybrook Crag and Gun Hill. Bouldering can be found on all of these, with the rock only reaching six meters tall at its highest. These crags are technically on private land but are now easy enough to visit.
There used to be a right of way along the crag but the landowner managed to obtain permission to close it; allegedly so that one day it can be turned into a massive Bardon Hill-esque quarry. The crag gets a glowing review in the old Leicestershire Climbs guidebook so go and have a go while you still can. While in the past High Sharpley may have been keepered by men with guns, recent visitors have had no such encounters and experienced no difficulties while exploring this precious place.
There used to be a right of way along the crag but the landowner managed to obtain permission to close it; allegedly so that one day it can be turned into a massive Bardon Hill-esque quarry. The crag gets a glowing review in the old Leicestershire Climbs guidebook so go and have a go while you still can. While in the past High Sharpley may have been keepered by men with guns, recent visitors have had no such encounters and experienced no difficulties while exploring this precious place.
Mike Adams' topo can be downloaded below. More info can be found on the online version of the old Leicestershire Climbs guidebook.
| high_sharpley_mike_adams.pdf |
Parking: For Flake Crag and Reservoir Crag park on Swannymote Road. For Isolated Crag, Drybrook Crag and Gun Hill park on Oaks Road.
Approach: Use the map on UKClimbing.com to plan an approach.
Approach: Use the map on UKClimbing.com to plan an approach.
This is no outdoor gymnasium; not a place to get pumped out... The manoeuvres you make are like the place itself - unique. You climb here for the desperate mantleshelves, the frightening pinch grips and the back-breaking landings. Nothing is obvious; sometimes you start a problem from a sitting position. Sometimes you jump. High Sharpley is, like Cademan Wood, a place to play, explore and invent.
High Sharpley- One of the most picturesque groups of rocks in the district is the High Sharpley rocks - a little tit-bit of pure mountain scenery rising precipitously from an unreclaimed plain... vast masses of rocks are piled in wide confusion, shewing Titanic force at some far-off period.
- New Guide to Charnwood Forest, J. Spencer (1875)
One hundred years ago, in Victorian times, [High Sharpley] was a picnic and beauty spot... High Sharpley is now private and fenced off - access totally prohibited, and the volcano is "keepered" by men with guns who are guarding it until the landowner can get permission to sell it off to be blown up for the second time in six hundred million years.
But this time nothing will remain, as this serious playground of pinnacles will be ground down to dust - killed and buried under yet another lane, on yet another motorway, so people can try to get to work. Because nowadays, "play" and what's more somewhere to play (unless it's a designated 'theme park') is deemed unimportant.
- Mrs Sharpe's Cracks, Greg Lucas (1996)
