Opening Times

Seven days a week

What makes this a great venue for School group Fun or Educational Visits?

Forget soggy field trips in the park. . . forget fighting through London traffic. . . come to Craggy Island and have fun, get fit and learn all at the same time!

Craggy Island Guildford is one of the largest dedicated indoor climbing centres in the country, and Craggy Island Sutton is a dedicated bouldering centre with a unique indoor caving system. Children love to climb and we are proud to be able to provide a safe environment to do so. While education is a large part of what we provide for youngsters, there is also an emphasis on FUN!

In addition to school trips, we run very popular term time kids clubs, school holiday courses and group visits so we are very skilled in ensuring your trip runs smoothly from the booking process and all the necessary paperwork to the actual day itself.

The centres have been designed to be welcoming and also to provide a range of climbing for every ability. Beware! Once you visit us you may well become a regular visitor as once experienced, most kids want to climb again. . . and again!

For over five years we have had thousands upon thousands of children experience the thrill of climbing and caving. It is difficult to describe the full range of benefits as each child is different, but always they will be pushing their boundary of physical end mental abilities to the limit.

What are the Curriculum Topics or Benefit to the students from a visit?

Indoor climbing hits many keywords for education and personal development.

Climbing and caving are great for self esteem, trust, teamwork, confidence building. Climbing and caving can also be used for science or mathematics using the dynamic nature of climbing on a rope for all sorts of applications and coursework such as gravity, forces, angles, lengths etc., and caving for geography, mapping, spacial awareness etc.

Did we mention physical education? i climbing is one of the best ways to keep fit?

What are the activities?

Indoor climbing, bouldering and caving.

What is the age range of the activities?

The minimum age is 8 years.

Sample programme of the activities:

An ideal programme is to book the children into a taster session where they will be looked after by one of our instructors.

The length of visit and ratio of children to instructor can vary depending on the age of children and what you would like them to achieve, but you can choose from roped climbing, bouldering, caving and caving and climbing.

By far the best way is to have a look at our website or to have a chat with our reception or centre managers.

ROPED CLIMBING (Guildford) - In groups of six, our trained instructors will give a simple safety briefing and kit your children up with a harness and helmet. After a warm-up they will then be able to climb in two teams of 3 on our 30ft climbing walls under our direct supervision. Depending on age and experience we can start them on very easy climbs or push them onto something harder. While one climbs the other two will be looking after the tailing rope belaying them for safety. The number of climbs depends on how quick they are but in an hour and a half session everyone will have a good go.

We have climbs that cater for all levels of ability so no one is left out, and each child also experiences the trust in each other by being actively involved in their saftey.

CAVING (Sutton) - In groups from 6 to 18 (or more) the children will have exclusive access to our unique caving system under the guidance of a trained instructor. We supply safety helmets and lights and the children can explore over 50m of twists and turns and surprises. Our instructors also know a wide range of games and challenges to develop teamwork or just for fun!

CAVING AND CLIMBING (Sutton) - At our Sutton centre there is world class bouldering. Bouldering is a form of low level climbing without ropes where climbers climb short routes (problems) where the aim is to climb a specific graded route using set colours. A climb and cave session is great for a larger amount of children as we can split them between each activity to get the best from your trip.

What materials to you provide or suggest groups bring to support the visit?

We provide the fun and experience. . . you provide the children.

What are the minimum and maximum group sizes and the free Teacher Ratio?

The minimum size group is 6 and the maximum is dependent on the centre and the time you wish to visit, but the usual maximum is 36.

Do you have or how do you arrange risk assessment?

Both our centres are fully risk assessed and we employ the retained services of Citation plc to ensure we are compliant with all current legislation.

Do you offer Teacher familiarisation days?

At both centres we encourage school usage and have schemes to train teachers so that they can bring children into the centres without the need for our instructors. Please contact our centre managers for details.

What facilities are there for school groups for food and drink, shop etc?

At Guildford we have a in-house cafe serving food, drinks and snacks overlooking the climbing arena. At Sutton there are vending machines in the centre and a cafe and restaurant next door.

Is specific clothing required?

Loose comfortable clothes and tight clean trainers are advised but we also hire rock climbing shoes for £2.50 a pair.

Do you have first aid on site?

Yes

Are there any restrictions on photos, copyright etc?

No