The Wall

Welcome to the University of Edinburgh climbing wall community! Here's a little guide to help you understand our climbing offering.

What is indoor climbing?

Indoor climbing is climbing indoors on artificial climbing walls. The main types of indoor climbing are bouldering, top-roping and lead climbing and here at The Wall we have all three!

Why climb?

It’s fun!

Climbing is a fun, creative and explorative activity which challenges you physically and mentally. We change the routes and boulder problems frequently so the challenge is always fresh.

Get strong!

Climbing is a full-body workout and a good session will work every muscle group in your body. You don’t need to be strong to start, but you’ll sure get strong if you climb often! Even better, climbing will improve your agility, your balance and coordination as well helping to develop some mental toughness!

Make friends

Climbing is a hugely sociable sport with climbers of all abilities often coming together and helping one another throughout a session. Here at the Wall, we have a strong community brought together by the love of climbing!

Build self-confidence

There’s a growing body of research pointing out how regular climbing can help build self-confidence. But don’t let us tell you, come and try it for yourself!

De-stress

Climbing can be a fully immersive sport and when you’re halfway up a route or a problem you’ve got little time to think about anything else! Many people use climbing as the perfect way to de-stress from work or studies.

Is climbing for me?

Are you keen to try something new? Keen to push yourself? Do you want to learn new skills and join a warm and vibrant climbing community?

If so then climbing is definitely for you!

We have routes and problems for people of all abilities.

Are there any auto-belays?

Yes, we have just installed three auto-belays in our roped climbing wall! No climbing partner? No problem! Don’t know how to top-rope or lead climb yet but still want to climb? No problem!

Whether you’ve used these before or they’re completely new to you our staff are always on hand to make sure you can use them safely. 

How do I get started?

We run a range of climbing courses for beginners and coaching and workshops for the more experienced. If you are a University of Edinburgh student or staff member you can join us for free taster sessions on Friday afternoons (need to be booked through MyEd).

If you want to start with bouldering we have an online registration process for bouldering so you can, sign up, book a session and get right involved!

Throughout the year we also run a range of social nights and events to help the community come together and best of all, all hire equipment is completely free!

What’s next?

Give us a call, drop us an email or better yet, pop in to The Wall to say hi and let us answer any questions you have in person!