Climbing & mountaineering · Newcastle upon Tyne & Northumberland

We're the Wanneys. Come climbing.

A relaxed club of climbers from Newcastle and the Northumberland hills. Trad, sport, bouldering, winter, the wall: whatever you climb and however long you've been at it, there's a rope and a lift waiting.

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Who we are

We're a relaxed bunch who love climbing, whatever the discipline, grade or experience. Being a Wanney means people to climb with, places to go, a push when you want one, and a good laugh along the way.

In winter we're at the walls and off to huts in the hills. When the light comes back we're out on Northumberland's sandstone on summer evenings and away at weekends whenever the weather and diaries line up.

We've had a quiet few years. We're getting going again now, and we want you along: new faces, old faces, and anyone who's been meaning to find people to climb with.

More about us

Our name is older than all of us

Search for “the Wanneys” and you'll mostly find rock. Great Wanney and Little Wanney are sandstone crags near Ridsdale, with some of the oldest recorded climbing in Northumberland. The name goes back further still: the Wilds of Wanney is the old Tyneside name for the wild moorland where the River Wansbeck rises.

We carry that name, and we climb all over, the Wanneys included.

The story of the name →

We wrote some of the guidebook

We developed Ratcheugh Crag route by route and hand-printed our own guide to it. Many of those route names are still in use.

That's one page of our logbook. If you were there, or there's an old copy of the guide in a drawer somewhere, we want to hear from you.

Open the club logbook →

The real club is on WhatsApp

Meets, lifts, last-minute “anyone free Saturday?” messages, and plenty of banter. Tell us a little about yourself and we'll send you the invite.

Ask to join