The name Ailladie is an anglicized translation from the Irish language name, Aill an Daill, which means The Blind Man's Cliff or Cliff of the Blind Person. The cliffs are also referred to locally, and by anglers, as Ballyreen Cliffs and Ballyreen Point, which is another anglicised version of the name given to Ailladie's local townland of Baile Uí Rinn; Ring's homestead.
Structure
Ailladie is an long west-facing limestone sea-cliff, varying in height from metres to metres, that is situated on the coast of The Burren in County Clare, in Ireland. The northernmost sections of the cliff are not sea-cliffs, and their bases can be accessed by various climbing descent routes to flat limestone shelves below. However, the southernmost sections are all sea-cliffs and can only be accessed by rope abseil. The cliff straddles the Clare townlands of Ballyryan, and Crumlin.
Access
Ailladie is hidden from view and is just off the R477 road,, at a point before the road turns inland and south-east to Lisdoonvarna. The Ailladie car-park is marked on online maps and is opposite the Stone Wall section of the cliff. Beside the car park, to the south, is the smaller rock climbing crag known as Ballyryan. Access to the base of the cliff is only possible without abseiling at the northernmost end, where a roped fisherman's descent gives access to Ailladie's cliff base, which is a large limestone platform.
Rock climbing
Sections
Ailladie's northern half covers the sections known to climbers as the Dancing Ledges and the Aran Wall, and sits above a large rock platform making it accessible, via the 3-metre roped fisherman's descent, regardless of tides. Ailladie climbers also use the climber's descent area at O'Conner's Corner. The Dancing Ledges is the lowest section of Ailladie with several climbs of 10–15 metres. The first part of Ailladie's southern half is Mirror Wall, and it is accessible by boulder-hopping at low-tide, although climbers also abseil down to the start of the climbs. The remainder of the southern half of Ailladie, the Stone Wall, An Falla Uaigneach, and Boulder Wall sections, require abseils for access. Many of the climbs in the imposing An Falla Uaigneach sector have to be started from a hanging belay, and the sector also offers climbers deep water soloing routes at very high grades of difficulty, and with significant drops. The rock is limestone, of good clean blue/grey quality and mostly hanging in a sheer vertical form. Its texture is described as "varies from smooth, in the few small areas recently exposed by rockfall, to a sharppopcorn texture which provides excellent friction". Most climbs follow steep narrow finger-crack lines, and the rockclimbing protection is considered to be good. The last guidebook, published in 2008, lists 170 climbs, nearly all single-pitches, with grades up to E7 6c. Most Ailladie climbs are at and above E1 5b grades; there is little quality below VS 4cgrade. The lower sections of some routes, and the climbing grade, can change due to the movements of large boulders in sea storms, and hence why many Mirror Wall climbers start from a hanging belay.
History
The climbing potential of Ailladie was discovered in August 1972, when it was visited by a group of Dublin climbers. Word of its quality spread and development began in earnest. Ailladie, and the smaller nearby climbing crags in The Burren area, became recognised as the only on-shore limestone rock climbing locations in Ireland; the others being mainly granite, sandstone and dolerite. Since then, Ailladie has remained at the "cutting edge" of Irish outdoor traditional rock climbing, along with the dolerite Fair Head cliff in County Antrim. The UKC described Ailladie as "Best coastal limestone in the world! Fact!". The Irish Examiner said, "The mecca for rock climbing in Ireland is Ailladie". The Irish Times called it "one of Ireland’s best rock-climbing sites".
Facilities
Visiting climbers either camp in the fields above the crag, or stay at one of the many hostels in the surrounding villages. There are several nearby inland high limestone crags with a good range of graded rock climbs, especially in the grades below VS, that are within walking distance or a short driving distance, from Ailladie; however, these do not have anything like the quality or popularity of Ailladie.
Shore angling
The limestone ledges at the base of Ailladie's cliffs, are regarded for their shore-angling and are described as providing "superb bottom fishing". Anglers know the area as Ballyreen-south of Fanore, and several of the rocks have numbers painted on them for shore-angling competitions. Ballyreen is noted as one of the few shore-angling locations in Clare where sharks, and conger eels have been successfully landed. Because of the proximity of these low limestone ledges to deep Atlantic waters, the ledges have seen several fatalities over the years of anglers who were caught by sudden swells or large waves, and were carried out to sea.
Accidents
As well as accidents from rock-climbing activities, and accidents and fatalities from shore-angling activities, Ailladie has also seen a number of accidents and fatalities from tourist activities as a result of falls at the cliffs.
