By a strange coincidence, today I was talking to the folk who actually discovered these carvings. They told me that they had discussed the protection of the carvings when they first reported them to the authorities - the wheels turn slowly - apparently Copt Howe is in all the climbing books but the relevent sporting bodies have been contacted. So hopefully the news will get through to the climbers, who on the whole seem to be a sensible bunch. It is was also pointed out that climbers have been using these rocks for decades.