A five-year-old boy has conquered one of Ireland’s most terrifying sea stacks.
Luke Miller saw a YouTube video of The Sturral in Co Donegal, a sea stack which is 600 ft high in places, and immediately wanted to climb it.
And when he put the challenge to dad Iain, he carefully weighed up the situation and said why not?
Luke was a little nervous at first but with the promise of a new box of Lego and a chocolate cake at the summit, he never looked back.
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Dad Iain, who runs the Unique Ascent adventure company, said he had to think long and hard about it but in the end, they went for it together.
It helped that Luke’s mum was away visiting friends in Dublin when they decided to undertake their amazing adventure.
With the terrifying sea stack being only two feet wide in parts, there was no room for mistakes for little Luke or his dad.
Equipped with safety harness, a safety helmet and of course his dad, Luke attacked the sea stack like a professional.
Iain said: “For the past few months he has climbed several sea cliffs around Cruit Island and he has been to the big new indoor wall at the Foyle Arena in Derry.
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“We waited for blue sky, sunshine, minimal wind and mum to be away to Dublin. Easter holidays from school and Luke and I headed to The Sturrall. The sea was too bouncy for a sea stack ascent so by default, the Sturrall was the winner.
“With the promise of a big box of lego the following day in Letterkenny and chocolate cake on the summit we headed off.
“Luke was a star performer walking the whole 7km journey and was most definitely having fun on the steep ground.
“On the summit, he asked if it is lunchtime, the chocolate cake was the primary motivation to stand on the summit.”
The Sturrall is one of the most outstanding sea cliff features in Ireland it is a true monster of a headland sitting isolated and far from the real world.
It rests between Glencolmcille Village to the South and the An Port road end to the North on the south-west corner of County Donegal.
It is an 800 metre long and 190-metre high knife-edge mountain ridge which runs from mainland Donegal directly out into the Atlantic Ocean, the summit of the Sturrall is quite an inaccessible and foreboding place to visit.
