The Tube

For those who don’t know about Newtyle Quarry it is Scotland’s principle continental style Mixed Crag.

Developed by Scott Muir back in 2003 just at the same time when he ran the first Mountain Equipment competitions at Glasgow Climbing Centre!

Scott bolted and climbed a number of easier lines on the “doorjam” slab at the entrance to the quarry. The “happy hooker” wall was developed in the same year offering technical and steep M7 – M8 climbing but for the real steep stuff you must venture up to the Tube.

The Tube is a dark and damp cave which holds a number of hard mixed routes and a F8b sports climb and a trad E7! The first route to tool up from the depths of the cave was Scott’s “Fast and Furious” at D10+ ! This route has seen a number of repeats over the subsequent years and it is a popular training target of many climbers indeed it was featured in the Hot Aches short film “Fools With Tools” which told the story of a group of Edinburgh climbers who had decided to take on the challenge of Fast and Furious.

“Team Tube” headed up to the tube on the Sunday following the Glenmore lodge Competition and did some work on F & F while being inspired watching Greg Boswell and Mike Tweedley working on the extension “Too Fast Too Furious” which continues all the way out of the cave onto the headwall!

A day in the tube at Newtyle can be a lonely and frustrating place but when you get along with a group of people, who can give entusiastic beta from the floor, the atmosphere is great and encourages you to put in a shift on the route!

Best effort from “Team STS” has to be Scott Grosdanoff who got onto the route for the first time and made a great effort all the way up to the hidden hold on the overlap! This takes some effort!

You can find a topo for Newtyle Quarry here on Scottishclimbs