Old Man of Hoy
Encyclopedia
.jpg)
Stack (geology)
A stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, isolated by erosion. Stacks are formed through processes of coastal geomorphology, which are entirely natural. Time, wind and water are the only factors involved in the...
of red sandstone
Old Red Sandstone
The Old Red Sandstone is a British rock formation of considerable importance to early paleontology. For convenience the short version of the term, 'ORS' is often used in literature on the subject.-Sedimentology:...
perched on a plinth
Plinth
In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests. Gottfried Semper's The Four Elements of Architecture posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, and the wall make up all of architectural theory. The plinth usually rests...
of igneous
Igneous rock
Igneous rock is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic rock. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava...
basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
rock, close to Rackwick Bay on the west coast of the island of Hoy
Hoy
Hoy is an island in Orkney, Scotland. With an area of it is the second largest in the archipelago after the Mainland. It is connected by a causeway called The Ayre to South Walls...
, in the Orkney Islands
Orkney Islands
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. It is a distinctive landmark seen from the Thurso
Thurso
-Facilities:Offices of the Highland Council are located in the town, as is the main campus of North Highland College, formerly Thurso College. This is one of several partner colleges which constitute the UHI Millennium Institute, and offers several certificate, diploma and degree courses from...
to Stromness
Stromness
Stromness is the second-biggest town in Orkney, Scotland. It is in the south-west of Mainland Orkney. It is also a parish, with the town of Stromness as its capital.-Etymology:...
ferry, MV Hamnavoe
MV Hamnavoe
Northlink Ferries' car and passenger ferry, MV Hamnavoe operates across the Pentland Firth to Orkney.-History:MV Hamnavoe was introduced to the service in 2003, the first ferry to have been specifically built for the Pentland Firth route...
, and is a famous rock climb. It is close to another famous site, The Dwarfie Stane
Dwarfie Stane
The Dwarfie Stane is a megalithic chambered tomb carved out of a titanic block of Devonian Old Red Sandstone located in a steep-sided glaciated valley between the settlements of Quoys and Rackwick on Hoy, an island in Orkney, Scotland....
.
History
William Daniell
William Daniell RA was an English landscape and marine painter, and engraver. He travelled extensively in the Far East, helping to produce one of the finest illustrated volumes of the period - "Oriental Scenery". He also travelled around the coastline of Britain to paint watercolours for the...
, a landscape painter, sketched the sea stack in 1817 as a wider column with a smaller top section and an arch at the base, from which it derived its name. A print of this drawing is still available in local museums. Sometime in the early 19th century, a storm washed away one of the legs leaving it much as it is today, although erosion continues.
Climbing records
Chris Bonington
Sir Christian John Storey Bonington, CVO, CBE, DL is a British mountaineer.His career has included nineteen expeditions to the Himalayas, including four to Mount Everest and the first ascent of the south face of Annapurna.-Early life and expeditions:Educated at University College School in...
, Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey
Tom Patey
Tom Patey was a Scottish climber, mountaineer and writer. Although he was a leading Scottish climber of his day, particularly excelling on winter routes, he his probably best known for his humorous songs and prose about climbing, many of which were published posthumously in the collection One...
over a period of three days. On 8–9 July 1967 an ascent featured in a live BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
three-night outside broadcast
Outside broadcasting
Outside broadcasting is the electronic field production of television or radio programmes from a mobile remote broadcast television studio. Professional video camera and microphone signals come into the production truck for processing, recording and possibly transmission...
, which had around 15 million viewers. This featured three pairs of climbers: Bonington and Patey repeated their original route, whilst two new lines were climbed, by Joe Brown
Joe Brown (climber)
Joseph Brown, CBE is an English climber, born the seventh and last child of a family in the Manchester suburb of Ardwick. He became famous for climbing during the 1950s, and was a member of the Valkyrie climbing club and founding member of the Rock and Ice climbing club. An early climbing partner...
and Ian McNaught-Davis
Ian McNaught-Davis
Ian McNaught-Davis is most recognised nowadays for presenting the BBC TV series The Computer Programme, Making the Most of the Micro and Micro Live in the 1980s. However, he is also a well-known mountaineer and alpinist...
, and by Pete Crew and Dougal Haston
Dougal Haston
Dougal Haston, , was a Scottish mountaineer born in Currie, on the outskirts of Edinburgh.-Climbing achievements:...
.
The stack has a number of climbing routes (one route being at the British grade of E6), but the vast majority of ascents, of which there are 20–50 in an average year, are by the original and easiest route at E1 (5b). A small RAF log book in a Tupperware
Tupperware
Tupperware is the name of a home products line that includes preparation, storage, containment, and serving products for the kitchen and home, which were first introduced to the public in 1946....
container is buried in a cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
on the summit, as an ascensionists' record.
Evidence from the original 1960s ascents is still present on the stack, in the form of a collection of wooden wedges hammered into the vertical corner crack of the second pitch. The belays
Belaying
thumb|200px|right|A belayer is belaying behind a lead climberBelaying refers to a variety of techniques used in climbing to exert friction on a climbing rope so that a falling climber does not fall very far...
consist of natural threads and wedged ironmongery, including (in 1994) a snow 'deadman' anchor forced into a crack. Some parties choose to divide the second (5b) pitch into two, bringing the second around to the base of the overhanging crack to belay from a hanging stance to keep the remainder of the pitch 'straight'. Care must be taken on the descent abseil
Abseiling
Abseiling , rappelling in American English, is the controlled descent down a rock face using a rope; climbers use this technique when a cliff or slope is too steep and/or dangerous to descend without protection.- Slang terms :...
at this point as it is fairly easy to jam the ropes on retrieval - and a stash of abandoned ropes cut from the stack bears testimony to this.
BASE jump
On the morning of 16 May 2008 it was announced on BBC Radio OrkneyBBC Radio Orkney
BBC Radio Orkney is a local opt-out of BBC Radio Scotland for the Orkney Islands, which is based in Castle Street, Kirkwall, Orkney, in Scotland....
that the first BASE jump
BASE jumping
BASE jumping, also sometimes written as B.A.S.E jumping, is an activity that employs an initially packed parachute to jump from fixed objects...
had been performed off the top by Roger Holmes, Gus Hutchinson-Brown and Tim Emmett. The jump took over three years of planning. A video of the jump is on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUCLPJpdbV0. Hutchinson-Brown died a month later during a jump in Switzerland.
In popular culture
The Old Man appears in the "Trailer sketch" of the Monty Python's Flying CircusMonty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
episode "Archaeology Today" in which the voiceover (Eric Idle
Eric Idle
Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
) says that singer Lulu
Lulu (singer)
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, OBE , best known by her stage name Lulu, is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s through to the present day...
climbs the Old Man. It also appears in the opening scene of the video of the Eurythmics
Eurythmics
Eurythmics were a British pop rock duo, formed in 1980, currently disbanded, but known to reunite from time to time. Consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A...
' 1984 hit song "Here Comes the Rain Again
Here Comes the Rain Again
"Here Comes the Rain Again" is a song by British pop duo Eurythmics. It was written by group members Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart and produced by Stewart. The song was released as the third single in the UK from the album Touch and in the United States as the first single. It became...
".
See also
- The Old Man resembles Lange AnnaLange AnnaLange Anna , is a high sea stack of Buntsandstein in the North Sea island of Heligoland, Germany. Formerly it was also known as Hengst or Mönch, but its real local name is Nathurn Stak . Climbing the stack is not allowed but tourists can look at the rock from a distance.Lange Anna is somewhat...
("Long Anna" or "Tall Anna"), a landmark on HeligolandHeligolandHeligoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea.Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands are located in the Heligoland Bight in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea...
, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
External links
- Grid reference:
- Mountaineering Council of Scotland 1966 climb - The Old Man of Hoy Catherine DestivelleCatherine DestivelleCatherine Monique Suzanne Destivelle is an Algeria-born French rock climber and mountaineer. In 1992 she became the first woman to complete a solo ascent of the Eiger's north face. She completed the climb in winter in 15 hours...
's solo ascent in 1998