And Sho, after two years of cunning plans being foiled by the combined forces of the mighty Neptune and Gaia it came to pass.
Dún Briste sea stack off Downpatrick Head in Co Mayo in the west coast of Ireland became a stack in 1300's, got its summit landed on by helicopter in 1980 and got its first ascent in 1990. This stack has been on the todo list for almost a decade but only really started laughing at me in the last two years.

[Click to View YouTube Video]


After three previous attempts over the last two years the planets aligned and we set sail and paddled out to its base on 27th August 2016. Paulina Kaniszewska was the willing cohort for the cunning plan. With the Inflatable dingy as the prefered weapon of choice for nautical access and the crossing.
Landed on the huge platforms at the base of the west face. Alas this roof covered wall is horribly over hanging with huge roofs of Damocles everywhere above us.



We followed the original and only route from the seaward edge of the west face until stopped by a horrorshow of a greasy overhang. A swift thuggy hand traverse over the void and we arrived unto a huge ledge. Alas I opted for an easier looking new 2nd pitch but off course this turned out to be perhaps the most foolish of our already foolish actions todate. This pitch involved an ever increasing death drop through an 8 metre run out up the grime covered bulges to a recess below the summit. A boulder choked chimney led from here to the summit.




The summit was surreal place to be as the foundations of the medieval settlement are still in place. The stack had people living on it when it parted company with mainland Ireland in the 1300's. Seven people have been on the summit in 700 years and the previous occupants of the houses Quern Stone and their ancient sheep gate. (the sheep gate allows sheep through but not cattle and dates back to biblical time)
Anyways it was a wild place to be standing in the pouring ran with no rappel anchors in near reach and Paulina at the top of first pitch unable to climb the now river of a second pitch. Built an anchor round a grassy hummock and returned to Paulina absolutely terrified. After a bit of a sit down we began the return to the boat and from here it involved lowering Paulina into the sea for a swim and myself freesoloing the first pitch in descent. Which took us back to the mighty vessel and the paddle back to the carpark.


Ive put more details in the below blog post, with more details of the logistics and gear used, which will interest pretty much no-one but me.

http://www.uniqueascent.ie/sp/article_manager/detail/downpatrick_head_sea_stack_climb