Donegal Climbing

Excellent week in the Scottish Highlands with a very knowledgeable and expert guide (Bren) who planned and executed a week with multiple options for each day to counter and take advantage of weather conditions.I learnt a lot about local geography, fauna, and mountain skills needed to traverses the Scottish highlands in all seasons and will take away a lot of knowledge and skills along with my own ability. Bren is very reassuring and confident when planning and mapping routes which is in turn instilled on each climber/ mountaineer as safety is highly respected.A must have experience for those who want to learn about survival skills in different conditions, themselves and learn new abilities for mountaineering.

Had a great day refreshing some nav skills with Bren - great teacher, lots of great knowledge and skills. Fun day out. Will definitely be looking to do more with him in the future.

Our experience with Bren was fantastic! He was very knowledgeable of the country's history and of course Star Wars! If you want to learn about Malin Head, he's your man! He even had a surprise at the end! Thank you for our once in a lifetime experience!

Absolutely incredible experience!We came out for a holiday from South Africa and this was by far the highlight of our trip! Bren is such a knowledgeable and witty guide. We learnt so much about climbing, Donegal and the local flora and fauna (we even spotted some seals swimming about). I really felt safe and comfortable with such an experienced climber to direct this amateur (so safe that he even convinced us to climb with our eyes closed!)We also thoroughly enjoyed hearing all about the incredible experiences, celebrity meetings and climbing stories from our wonderful guide!I would recommend this a thousand times over to any visitors or locals from this area!

As a former geology student I thought I knew a good bit about bearings etc., until I did the map reading with Bren! He made things so simple and useful and yet he also imparted a huge amount of knowledge. I am really grateful for his expertise and guidance which I was lucky to experience on the Lowland Leader course. I highly recommend doing the course, but wear a lot of layers because there is a lot of standing around in the Irish wind!

Husband and I had an absolutely fantastic day out! Bren was the perfect guide; from the beginning to the end, his communication was prompt and helpful. On arrival, he’d already set up the safety systems to minimise us waiting around. We’ve been on outdoor trips where we only climbed a couple of routes with lots of waiting around, with Bren we climbed a lot more! Immensely good value!Bren is a fountain of knowledge, experience, and wisdom. Bren chose the climbing location wisely - it was scenic by the water, and we could climb in the comfort of the shade if we wanted to. He taught us with patience and kindness, and was steadfast and reliable. He told us about the rocks we’re climbing on, the history of the land around us, climbing and belaying techniques, how to coil a rope, and even what brand of shoes might suit our feet! He also recommended restaurants and places to explore after our climbing. It was one of the highlights of our Ireland trip and we would for sure seek out Bren again on our next trip back. Highly recommended!

Had a fantastic day out with Bren on Saturday, such a great and enthusiastic teacher. Certainly left me with a lot more knowledge of hillwalking leadership.

Last weekend I began my training to become a mountain leader. There are many instructors and providers out there and making a decision on who to invest my money and time in was, for me an important decision. Bren Whelan owner of Donegal Climbing was suggested to me by a friend also on this journey. So I did my research and discovered that Bren has a long list of qualifications and achievements.Very impressive but how would this transpire in person. Well, from the first email contact I had it was evident that Bren is organised, professional and extremely helpful. The information and suggested reading provided before the weekend was so informative and helpful.In person, his knowledge, experience and expertise is evident in how he conducted the training, how the teaching was delivered and how he engaged with each one of us.After the training Bren was generous with his time and shared excellent resources to prep us for ML2 and our ML Assessment further down the line. He answered any questions we had with enthusiasm and patients.I feel very grateful to have had such a positive learning experience and would highly recommend Bren if you are considering any kind of mountain training. Looking forward to completing ML2 with Bren in the near future.

Did a tour with my best friend. Our Guide Bren was amazing. He gave information about Malin Head itself and how the filming of Star Wars was done at the sights. Got a lot of new information and just seeing everything it was beautiful. Bren was super helpful and he had the best surprise! If you are a Star Wars fan, definitely see if you can book anything here!

A group of us have just spent a great day learning hiking and navigation skills with Brendan. He is an excellent teacher; very knowledgeable and encouraging.