Crab Slab is a sea cliff at an area called Meikle Ross, about 5 miles from Craig Cottage. Meikle Ross forms the headland on the west side of Kirkcudbright Bay and features vertically bedded sedimentary rocks from the Silurian period. The access to Crab Slab is via a somewhat precarious scramble down a steep grassy slope which is shown in the photo below:
The first route we climbed was an introductory easy climb up the edge of the slab. The slab is actually a vertical fin of rock that is just a few feet thick so there’s quite an exposed couple of moves across the top of the cliff to get to where it meets the main mass of the hillside. Here’s John sorting out the ropes at the top of the climb, trying not to fall off the sides of the slab.
We did a couple more climbs out on the face of the slab. The rock is very good for climbing with good friction and some nice features weathered out for hand and foot-holds.
Gabrielle found a nice spot to relax at the top of one of the climbs. Note the very sturdy block of rock for setting up the belay and abseil anchors.
We also had an exploratory scramble round the headland to look at some of the other cliffs in the area.