Sanna Bay bouldering and climbing

Crag: Sanna Bay
Routes: Yee Haa (V0), Maverick (V0), Goose (V0), Crashed and Burned (V1), Iceman (V1), Ladies Room (V0), Charlie's Crack (VB)
Crag: Sanna West/Marquee Buttress
Routes: Elephant's Head Crack (VD:sol), Portuairk Seam (HVD:sol), Sanna Slab (S 4b:sol), Marquee slabs (M:sol)
One of the most perfect beaches anywhere, we were all eager to get back to Sanna after our first visit on Sunday. This time, we walked in from the car park in Sanna itself (a collection of houses by the sea) through the large dune systems. The day was perfect, again, not a cloud in the sky. And this time I'd packed the rock boots and chalk bag. I knew there was bouldering on the most remote, southerly beach: indeed, I had seen two couples climbing there on Sunday. I don't like bouldering much, but I realised quite quickly that this 'crag' wasn't really bouldering: more like miniature routes. The rock was perfect gabbro, running to superb holds and giving perfect friction. This meant that all the routes (at least the ones I did) felt more like short 5m HVS's than technical boulder problems. The crag is fairly high in places, too, although the perfect sandy landings seem almost too good to be true, as does the general location and ambience on this utterly idyllic beach. M was on photoshoot duty and did a fine job of capturing the essence of the place. I did numerous 'routes' whilst here: hard to remember exactly what, but the juggy flake crack in the centre and the steep wall further right stuck out. Quite a few good natural groove lines too. After lunch and a paddle, I jogged up to the crag I dubbed 'Marquee Buttress' after its elongated tent shape. This might have been Sanna West, which does have a few easy routes on it. If so, I may have done Adder and Subtractor at VD/S. If not (and I had no real way of telling) then I suppose these are very modest new routes. The crag is the tent-shaped slab visible from the beach: a 10 minute walk uphill from the beach. The angle is very gentle, perhaps a little too gentle to be worthwhile, but the rock and general situation is superb. Perfect, clean gabbro. The 'Y' shaped crack (the 'elephant's head' feature) gave a good route with two variation finishes up delicious narrow flake cracks which went up either side of the 'trunk and ears': VD at the most. The thinner seam to its left gave a slightly harder route, again slabby, while the blanker slab to the right gave a more delicate line at around S 4b on small ripples. All routes led to a ledge, above which the obvious finish took a steeper wall up a line of jugs. I then scrambled up the crest of the buttress, no more than Moderate - but 100ft+. Astonishing views over Sanna Bay to Eigg and Rum from this vantage point high on the hillside. Later on, I took a pre-dinner run up to the lakes on Beinn na Seilg and saw a white-tailed eagle at close range (but I settled for some little lines on Stacha Dubh having failed to find the crag that was supposed to be on the 'western slopes'!).