The Sport and Recreation Alliance bring you the top 10 places to learn to climb in the UK.
Want to gain a sense of freedom and achievement at the same time? Want to try an activity that gives you a workout for the mind as well as the body?
Well then, why not give rock climbing a go? Rock climbing is one of the fastest growing sports in the UK and is a brilliant way to build functional body strength as well as challenge you to think on your feet.
In the UK we've got loads of brilliant facilities, both indoor and outdoor, but sometimes you just need a helpful nudge in the right direction to give an activity a try.
That’s why we’ve searched high and low to give you the best 10 places to learn to climb indoors, in centres all of whom offer great sessions for adults or kids that want to give climbing a try.
In no particular order, here they are:
Set in a castle in the middle of London, the Castle Climbing Centre has a really nice vibe to it. Spread over four floors it houses over 450 roped and lead routes from 8m to 13m in height and has an extensive range of bouldering surfaces.
What’s more if you like sustainable businesses, in 2014 this centre won the Green Thinking Award at the Community Sport and Recreation Awards.
This multi activity centre has been running for over 55 years and has a whole host of outdoorsy activities to keep you entertained and its inside climbing activities are a treat!
The centre has over 1,580 m2 of climbing surface and the only indoor natural limestone featured climbing walls in Wales – great for practising climbing outdoors. They’ve also got artificial featured climbing, large bouldering areas, an 18m caving ladder, rope and tree climb facilities.
The Lakeland Climbing Centre offers superb indoor and outdoor rock climbing. It's got the tallest indoor climbing centre in the country for the experts, and the Den, a family-friendly room for beginners. There's also two more bouldering rooms.
Not only that, the centre is a Primary Awarding Centre for the National Indoor Climbing Award Scheme (NICAS), which means that if you want to progress with your climbing you can follow a structured and logged progression.
With the South West’s largest indoor climbing wall, the Quay Climbing Centre aims to provide a safe, welcoming and vibrant environment for climbers of all ages, abilities and experience to develop and master their climbing skills.
It’s got more than 150 climbing problems, top roped walls from 7-11m high as well as a 14m lead wall with a 4m overhang for those of you that one to do your best Sylvester Stallone impression.
If you live in Edinburgh and fancy learning to climb you are in luck. You’re just minutes away from Europe’s largest indoor climbing arena!
There’s the Tower Wall (28m high), the Main Wall (25m high), a dedicated bouldering room, a mobile climbing tower, and a special scrambles soft play area for the kids.
The Leeds Wall provides gentle slabs, tricky sloping overhangs, and huge curved overhang on the main wall, providing you with around 200 set routes.
The bouldering walls also have a dedicated area for beginners and loads of nifty training apparatus to build up your strength. If swinging an axe while climbing also sounds appealing, there’s also a dry tool tower to have a crack on.
This dedicated climbing centre in Birmingham has loads to offer climbers of all experience. It’s got more than a 1000sqm+ of climbing on it 12.5m high wall as well as 75 lines for you to get a hold on.
Not content with just that, its RedBloc bouldering centre has more than 200 bouldering problems for you to solve and there are two abseil ledges for you to have a go at to boot. The café also does some mean veggie food.
This climbing centre was the first climbing centre to be awarded ‘National Performance Centre’ status by the BMC and is a quality facility for any level of experience.
From its 23m competition wall with 12m overhang to its auto belay climbing wall there is something for everyone. Later in 2014 they will also be bringing in a zip wire, rope maze and caving system.
Earlier this year the High Sports Climbing centre was opened, becoming the largest in the south east in the process. With more than 60 rope climbs on 13m, 10m and 6m walls the centre allows an easy progression (even for experts) and also offers two floors dedicated to bouldering.
If you’re no expert, don’t worry, the centre runs loads of tasters and beginners courses to get you in the swing of things.
For those seeking to learn roped climbing, Reading Climbing Centre hosts 121 climbing lines on its 14m high wall, which are a mixture of top roped and lead lines.
But if you don’t fancy that, and fancy a crack at bouldering the centre offers two dedicated bouldering areas and a traversing room, so there is plenty to do even if you don’t fancy taking to the ropes.
If you'd like to find out more about climbing visit the British Mountaineering Council's website.
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