Oaks Pinnacle (The Hanging Stone)
Bouldering on a boulder on a boulder.
Bouldering on a boulder on a boulder.
Know locally as the Hanging Stone and The Stone
Low grade highball problems and much harder sit-starts on a unique rock formation. The jumble of boulders next to it give a few additional problems. A second smaller pinnacle can be found towards Charnwood Lodge.
Mike Adams' topo can be downloaded below. More info can be found on the online version of the old Leicestershire Climbs guidebook.
| oaks_pinnacle_mike_adams.pdf |
Parking: Park at the car park at Mount St Bernard Abbey.
Approach: Walk east along Oaks Road then turn right on to Abbey Road. Carefully follow this, making sure to watch for speeding traffic, to a footpath on the eastern side of the road. Make your way through the bracken to the pinnacle. ViewRanger Map.
Approach: Walk east along Oaks Road then turn right on to Abbey Road. Carefully follow this, making sure to watch for speeding traffic, to a footpath on the eastern side of the road. Make your way through the bracken to the pinnacle. ViewRanger Map.
The most mysterious place in Charnwood Forest is the Hanging Stone near Oaks in Charnwood. hardly anyone has heard of it and very few have visited it. It is a secret place. Very few have been there on nights when the full moon illuminates the eerie flat landscape. On the one night a year when the instant of the full moon occurs during he darkness of a Sunday the Power of the Stone is said to be at its greatest... There is a local tradition that lads must climb The Stone before any girl will take them in wedlock... Climb at twilight. Feel the power.
- R. Ramsbottom in Leicestershire Climbs (1993)
Between a place called Charley and Whitwick is an object which attracts; by some it is also called the Hanging Stone; it is one stone upon another; the former appears to have no support, or rather stay; it is balanced with nicest judgement; a gentle push you would suppose; would bring it to the ground; yet it has stood for ages, apparently, miraculously preserved.
- Supplement to the Leicestershire Views, J. Throsby (1790)
