The notion of counter archaeology is echoed by the opposing faces of the volcanic plug of Dumbarton Rock, Scotland. On the one side is the ‘official’ heritage of Dumbarton Castle, with its upstanding 17th century military remains and underlying occupation evidence dating back to at least the 8th century AD. On the other side lies a landscape of climbing, bouldering and post-industrial abandonment. This paper develops counter archaeology through the climbing traditions and boulder problems at Dumbarton Rock and surfaces marginalised forms of heritage. Climbers and archaeologists have co-authored the paper as part of a collaborative project, which challenges the binary trope of researcher and researched and provides a model for a collaborative, co-designed and co-produced counter archaeology.