Silbury Hill forum 180 room
Image by Chance
Silbury Hill

Trespass on SSSI sites

close
more_vert
thesweetcheat T
thesweetcheat Sep 3, 2012 22:26:32
Replying to bladup

bladup wrote:
thesweetcheat wrote:
I've never climbed Silbury, nor do I have a burning desire to do so. But I have climbed onto the top of The Gop in North Wales, the largest artificial mound in Wales (I think). The Gop is a huge cairn, very badly damaged by antiquarian excavations into its top. But it's still huge. I imagine some people will view climbing this as being no different to Silbury, but I mention it by way of contrast (note the fieldnotes, etc).

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/136/gop.html

I've climbed them both and the main difference is Silbury is a lot higher but the gop has better views, what is the difference in your mind [ there's none in mine ] and would you climb silbury if there wasn't any signs telling you not to? i think climbing any barrow/tumuli/cairn or mound is pretty much the same! to me it's none of them at all or all of them, i don't get that people would some but not others! it's all quite interesting isn't it?
Yes, it is (interesting). The main reason I wouldn't climb Silbury is because there is the potential for erosion damage if enough people do, and its pretty certain that large numbers would if it was openly accessible. But also it has just never appealed to me, unlike climbing Waden Hill for example - I can't really explain why. Most cairns or barrows I visit are little visited and one or two people a year is going to have little or no impact. Upland cairns don't generally suffer from damage through occasional footfall (although obviously very busy routes will erode the sides of cairns they pass close to). They suffer damage from idiots re-arranging them for entirely pointless reasons.

B bladup
bladup Sep 3, 2012 23:20:05
Replying to thesweetcheat

thesweetcheat wrote:
bladup wrote:
[quote="thesweetcheat"]I've never climbed Silbury, nor do I have a burning desire to do so. But I have climbed onto the top of The Gop in North Wales, the largest artificial mound in Wales (I think). The Gop is a huge cairn, very badly damaged by antiquarian excavations into its top. But it's still huge. I imagine some people will view climbing this as being no different to Silbury, but I mention it by way of contrast (note the fieldnotes, etc).

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/136/gop.html

I've climbed them both and the main difference is Silbury is a lot higher but the gop has better views, what is the difference in your mind [ there's none in mine ] and would you climb silbury if there wasn't any signs telling you not to? i think climbing any barrow/tumuli/cairn or mound is pretty much the same! to me it's none of them at all or all of them, i don't get that people would some but not others! it's all quite interesting isn't it?
That's what i find interesting, you said " The main reason I wouldn't climb silbury is because there is the potential for erosion damage if enough people do", but i know you know that that's the same for anywhere, even more so upland cairns that may have a path going straight though it, or any barrow that people climb on that's close to a path, it's your original point - that these places need protecting as much as silbury, but it's strange you would walk on these [Gop cairn and the like ] but not silbury!!!, i hope you understand what i'm on about as i found it hard to explain!