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Evergreen Dazed E
Evergreen Dazed Aug 30, 2012 09:15:12
Replying to Sanctuary

Sanctuary wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
Littlestone wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
It's the little wooden steps provided to help you over the wire that make me chuckle. ;)
Doesn’t make me chuckle, any more than the hammers that were once given out at Stonehenge to take a bit of it home. Burn ‘em next time you see them and use the ash as some kind of tat offering.
I happen not to agree with people freely clambering all over the monument, I think any right minded person would understand the potential damage that could be caused if you multiply one persons desire to climb by thousands, especially given the hills recent history.
However.. some people will climb the hill, despite this. I honestly think that to maintain the atmosphere of the place we need to accept that it's going to happen and if you catch somebody doing it or read something on a forum, perhaps the best and only thing to be done is to try to persuade them not to do it again.

I know some here get very irate about this subject but really, what else can be done? Would you like to see some sort of fine imposed? It won't make any difference to somebody who is determined. It may put off the casual climber but how many in number are they?
A huge great horrible fence? Still won't stop it and just spoils it for everybody else.

I'm asking - What would you like to see done to fix this issue?

Well IMO it has to be either totally excluded from the public ot opened up to them in a controlled way. We've been here before as LS correctly says, over and over in fact. When I was in my 20's there was a recognised 'path' that everyone used. It wasn't an official path but one that had been formed by the public and officialdom alike. What Bladup said and what I've said in the past is true...it is the official digs that have really put Silbury under threat, not Joe Public. When Prof Atkinson begun his dig he publically commented that the hill was showing no signs of wear and tear even after 4,000+ years.
I would love to walk to the top again but I'd like to be welcomed not warned off. The path, which can still be traced in parts, could be sympathetically re-instated with a surface that would be durable and maintained as and when. Don't charge people or it will only encourage the louts who won't pay anyway but still climb. If an official path is provided the remaining hill is very unlikely to suffer anymore damage...until the archaeo's decide to poke around inside again of course that is! Mind you, H&S would poke their noses in and have something to say about it I wouldn't wonder!
I agree that the archaeological investigations have caused the most damage, absolutely. But I think if people know that they are allowed to go onto the hill via the path during the day it wouldnt be long before people are walking all over the hill 'after hours'.

If you were at Skara Brae on a warm summers evening and nobody was around, are you telling me you wouldn't get down onto the beach and access the site so you can stand in one of those houses yourself? I don't think I could resist the temptation personally.
It seems to be ok, so far, at Skara Brae because of the remoteness of the site and the fact that the only people who would access it after hours are people who would never want to damage it in any way. I can't imagine people jumping in the houses, throwing bottles around and lighting fires.

Not so at Silbury sadly. It's very accessible and very tempting even to people who have no idea what it is.

S Sanctuary
Sanctuary Aug 30, 2012 09:22:40
Replying to Evergreen Dazed

Evergreen Dazed wrote:
Sanctuary wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
Littlestone wrote:
Evergreen Dazed wrote:
It's the little wooden steps provided to help you over the wire that make me chuckle. ;)
Doesn’t make me chuckle, any more than the hammers that were once given out at Stonehenge to take a bit of it home. Burn ‘em next time you see them and use the ash as some kind of tat offering.
I happen not to agree with people freely clambering all over the monument, I think any right minded person would understand the potential damage that could be caused if you multiply one persons desire to climb by thousands, especially given the hills recent history.
However.. some people will climb the hill, despite this. I honestly think that to maintain the atmosphere of the place we need to accept that it's going to happen and if you catch somebody doing it or read something on a forum, perhaps the best and only thing to be done is to try to persuade them not to do it again.

I know some here get very irate about this subject but really, what else can be done? Would you like to see some sort of fine imposed? It won't make any difference to somebody who is determined. It may put off the casual climber but how many in number are they?
A huge great horrible fence? Still won't stop it and just spoils it for everybody else.

I'm asking - What would you like to see done to fix this issue?

Well IMO it has to be either totally excluded from the public ot opened up to them in a controlled way. We've been here before as LS correctly says, over and over in fact. When I was in my 20's there was a recognised 'path' that everyone used. It wasn't an official path but one that had been formed by the public and officialdom alike. What Bladup said and what I've said in the past is true...it is the official digs that have really put Silbury under threat, not Joe Public. When Prof Atkinson begun his dig he publically commented that the hill was showing no signs of wear and tear even after 4,000+ years.
I would love to walk to the top again but I'd like to be welcomed not warned off. The path, which can still be traced in parts, could be sympathetically re-instated with a surface that would be durable and maintained as and when. Don't charge people or it will only encourage the louts who won't pay anyway but still climb. If an official path is provided the remaining hill is very unlikely to suffer anymore damage...until the archaeo's decide to poke around inside again of course that is! Mind you, H&S would poke their noses in and have something to say about it I wouldn't wonder!
I agree that the archaeological investigations have caused the most damage, absolutely. But I think if people know that they are allowed to go onto the hill via the path during the day it wouldnt be long before people are walking all over the hill 'after hours'.

If you were at Skara Brae on a warm summers evening and nobody was around, are you telling me you wouldn't get down onto the beach and access the site so you can stand in one of those houses yourself? I don't think I could resist the temptation personally.
It seems to be ok, so far, at Skara Brae because of the remoteness of the site and the fact that the only people who would access it after hours are people who would never want to damage it in any way. I can't imagine people jumping in the houses, throwing bottles around and lighting fires.

Not so at Silbury sadly. It's very accessible and very tempting even to people who have no idea what it is.

Yes but would 'walking all over the hill' really take place if you had a path to walk up. There's nothing to achieve by climbing up elsewhere and it's darn hard work trying to and why would you if there was an 'easy' path available. At the moment morons only climb all over it to in the main escape the public gaze, that why the northern side is being damaged like it is.