Climbing Walls in Plymouth

In the city

The Plymouth Active Climbing Centre is part of Plymouth Life Centre on Mayflower Drive, run by Plymouth Active Leisure, a community company owned by the city council. Its walls run from 6 to 16 metres, with more than 120 routes on 44 roped lines, reset weekly, two auto belays and a separate bouldering room. You can turn up without booking, but to use the ropes or auto belays on your own you need to pass a belay competency test, which staff will run at the start of any session. Wednesday evening is Belay Partner Night, for climbers looking for someone to climb with.

The Climbing Hangar Plymouth, on Burrington Business Park in the north of the city, is bouldering only, with walls up to 4.2 metres, a freestanding prow, a MoonBoard and a hardwood board, and a gym included in entry. Parking and shoe hire are free, it opens at 06:30 on Wednesdays and Fridays, and it runs its own Geddonbury bouldering comp.

The Mount Batten Outdoor Climbing Wall is an old quarry face on the Mount Batten peninsula, looking across Plymouth Sound, with bolted routes and a via ferrata. It's owned by the council and climbing must be supervised, so it's used by groups with an inducted leader or at organised sessions rather than for drop-in climbing. A ferry runs to Mount Batten from the Barbican. The wall at Plymouth Marjon University is currently used only for student teaching and the university's activity camps.

On the edge of Dartmoor

The Barn Climbing Centre is in a converted barn at Milton Abbot, near Tavistock, about 27 km north. It has a 9.5-metre lead wall with climbs up to 14 metres long, from French 4 to 8a+, a top-rope area, and a free-standing wooden boulder with up to 100 problems that all finish with a top-out. Lead ropes aren't for hire, so bring your own.

Dyno Climbing Centre in Buckfastleigh, about 29 km east beside the River Dart, has over 50 roped routes from 3 to 7c and a bouldering room. There are no auto belays, so you need a partner. Its café has a balcony over the wall, and it hires out bouldering pads for Dartmoor, about 15 minutes away.

Prices

In October 2026 a day pass at the Climbing Hangar cost £16 (£13 for concessions and under-18s), and a month £35.99. The Life Centre doesn't publish its standard casual price online, but Student Mondays before 16:00 and Over 50s Fridays cost £6, and its adult climbing membership was £33.50 a month. Out of town, The Barn charged £9.50 a day and £35 a month, and Dyno £13.50 a day (£11.50 for registered climbers) and £40 a month.

Kids and beginners

The Life Centre runs taster sessions, adult beginners' and lead courses, and weekly kids' sessions from age 5. The Hangar takes children from 4, with Rock Club classes for ages 4 to 13 that follow the NICAS scheme. Dyno has Dyno Tots for under-fives and weekly kids' sessions, and The Barn runs youth club sessions on weekend mornings.

Climbing outdoors

The Dewerstone, a granite crag in the woods above the River Plym near Shaugh Prior, is the nearest proper crag, about 12 km north-east of the city centre. It has six main buttresses, mostly low and middle-grade routes, with Central Groove (HS 4b) its best-known climb. The National Trust owns it and asks climbers not to abseil from trees, and kestrels nest on Upper Raven Buttress from late April to the end of June. Haytor and the other tors on the east of the moor are open access land with a legal right to climb.

See also our pages on climbing in Exeter and Cornwall, where Bosigran and the West Penwith sea cliffs are a couple of hours' drive west.