On one level no-one can argue with that. However for millions of people Silbury (along with Avebury and Stonehenge) is the only prehistoric site they'll be aware of over the course of a year so it has a special role to play in the conservation agenda. If those people see other people climbing it in defiance of the notices (and in this context it matters little if the notices are justified or not, the point is they exist and are being ignored) its going to send a message that prehistoric sites arent to be truly respected and that attitude will be carried on to all the thousands of lesser sites.

I'd like to see it promoted as sacred (not in the way the yob running down it shouted to me a while back - its our Temple OK so feck yerself) but sort of sacrosanct, not to be stepped on other than by agreement and appointment. Let it be the poster girl of prehistoric culture and treated accordingly, jealously guarded against incursions by locals and informed visitors so that a much greater sense of shame attaches to jumping over the fences. Smoking is no longer cool. Defying petty bureaucratic notices and swaggering up Silbury could be rendered uncool and socially unacceptable too. Maybe some of the sense of respect would then cascade down a bit to other places. I cant see any other way of marginally reducing the rate at which theyre being damaged and lost.

Yes I know this is an attack on "rights" (whatever they are) and "spirituality" (hmm) and "tradition" (so bloody what?) and the prohibition might even be based on a false view of the damage that can be done (so what again) but if the bottom line is that the public currently disrespect lesser prehistoric sites they need to be given a highly visible demonstration of total, total, total respect for a stellar one.