One native was on the Great Tor when a storm arose, and cut him off from the mainland and from all help. At low water Tormore can lie reached from the slime, mid it is scaled in many places by lads in search of eggs. In 1895 WP (Walter Parry) Haskett Smith wrote in his book, Climbing in the British Isles Vol 2, "Outside Port lies Tormore Island, one of a group of boulders, a rock which, though hardly half a mile round its base, is a tremendous sea fowl breeding-place, second only to Horn Head. It can even be clearly seen from the Dungloe/Kincaslough road some 40KM to the north. This huge square topped stack can be seen for many kilometres along the coast either side of it. At 148m at it's highest point above the ocean it is Ireland's highest sea stack. Tormore Island is a gigantic leviathan, a sentinal of the deep standing guard at the nautical gates to the Slievetooey coastline. It is always worth bearing in mind that the actual climbing is by far the easiest part of your day with the logistics of actually getting to the base of the stack as the crux of your day and getting off the stack can be equally dramatic. It can not be stressed enough that the sea around the base of this stack is a law unto it self and always requires a great deal of nautical guile. The above are just a few thoughts on climbing this stack, it's location out to sea from the Entrance to Shambalha storm beach and for that matter anyhere you care to launch from is outrageous.
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