See also Black Rocks (South Georgia)

The Black Rocks is a small outcrop of natural gritstone

Gritstone

Gritstone or Grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for paper and for grindstones to sharpen blades. "Grit" is...

, in between Cromford

Cromford

Cromford is a village, two miles to the south of Matlock in the Derbyshire Dales district in Derbyshire, England. It is principally known for its historical connection with Richard Arkwright, and the Cromford Mill which he built here in 1771...

 and Wirksworth

Wirksworth

Wirksworth is a small market town in Derbyshire, England, with a population of over 9,000.The population of the Wirksworth area including Cromford, Bolehill and Middleton-by-Wirksworth is about 12,000. Wirksworth is listed in the Domesday Book in 1086. Within it is the source of the River...

, situated in the Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

 Peak District

Peak District

The Peak District is an upland area in central and northern England, lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, but also covering parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, and South and West Yorkshire....

 (Landranger map 119), England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Parking is available for walking along the old railway path (see Cromford and High Peak Railway

Cromford and High Peak Railway

The Cromford and High Peak Railway in Derbyshire, England, was completed in 1831, to carry minerals and goods between the Cromford Canal wharf at High Peak Junction and the Peak Forest Canal at Whaley Bridge -Origins:...

) and up to the top of the crag, and there is a picnic area.

The area has been a well-known rock climbing

Rock climbing

Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...

 venue since the 1890s. A large number of hard lines were put up by some of the best climbers of the 80s/90s. The two best known climbs are featured in the documentary Hard Grit

Hard Grit

Hard Grit is a climbing film produced by Slackjaw Film, featuring climbing on gritstone in the North of England. It has won ten international film festival awards.-Featured Climbers:* Neil Bentley* John Dunne * Johnny Dawes...

. These are Gaia (E8 6b), up the groove in the massive nose that one sees first on the walk to the top, and Meshuga (E9 6c), on the main overhanging Promontory.

The Black Rocks also has easier climbing, but this is not for the faint of heart; larger crags offer a far better selection of similar climbs. There are also short but well-worn 'boulder problems' such as the 'Railway Slab'.

See also

• List of climbing areas - of the World.
• Grade (climbing)
  Grade (climbing)
  In rock climbing, mountaineering and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a climbing grade to a route that concisely describes the difficulty and danger of climbing the route...