Old Man of Hoy - Definition and Overview

The Old Man of Hoy is a 460 foot stack of red sandstone perched on a plinth of igneous basalt, close to Rackwick Bay on the west coast of the island of Hoy, in the Orkney Islands, Scotland.

The stack was first climbed in 1966 by a party which included Chris Bonnington, Joe Brown and Tom Patey. A year later an ascent was featured in a live BBC outside broadcast.

The stack now has a number of climbing routes, but the vast majority of ascents, of which there are 20 - 50 in an average year, are by the original and easiest route at the British grade of E1 (5b).