Climber Dave MacLeod checking out the route on Sròn Uladail. Photo: Richard Else

A hobbling Dave MacLeod successfully climbed one of the Western Isles’ hardest crags in the full glare of the television cameras.

With his climbing partner Tim Emmett, who was also suffering the after-effects of a previous broken leg, the Lochaber-based cragrat topped out at about 7pm yesterday, Saturday, after more than six hours on the 185m (600ft) overhanging Sròn Uladail on Harris.

Just five days earlier, MacLeod’s ankle was gashed to the bone by a breezeblock-sized rock that was detached and hit him while he was recce-ing routes on the cliff. After summiting the route, he promptly named it The Usual Suspects, after the 1995 film starring Kevin Spacey’s limping criminal character Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint.

MacLeod reckons the route is probably rated at E8.

The climb, which was broadcast live on BBC Two in Scotland and on the BBC HD channel, was dogged by poor weather.

After the climb, which involved more than 50 crew members from Triple Echo and the BBC, MacLeod declared himself ‘chuffed’.

The programme can be viewed on the BBC’s iPlayer.