Silbury Hill 180
Image by thesweetcheat

Rhiannon wrote:
oh THAT question.

Ok so it's all about damage to the site isn't it, weighing up whether there's too much of it. And if there is, restricting visitors.

No one's hammering the stones any more, they're just wandering round the very large landscape. So although there are a lot of visitors, they're well spread out. And the damage they do is probably to the grass, which isn't very exciting. And the NT have put in car parking and paths etc to funnel visitors around. I think they did cordon off the area where those nice tree roots are for a bit.

So it's all ok at Avebury isn't it? Or do you perceive there to be particular problems that mean visitors should be fenced off from the stones?

Ha, a serious reply or turn-around-a?

I was just fascinated to hear you thoughts on the damage at WKLB, the henge bank, the damage that has been done to the WKA stones in the past.

I'll take you reply at face value. Its ok at Avebury.
Hmmmm.

To be fair I've not been there in a while, I can't think of any other things I've noticed apart from the tree roots.

If the barrow at WK is being eroded, then obviously yes fence the area, reseed it, put up a notice to explain to people what's going on. What else would you do? All these things are only preventative measures to stop damage to irreplaceable sites, measures that most people would go along with. No one who wants to sit inside Skara Brae would rip down a fence round some grass seedlings at West Kennet. But really where's the difference.

Maybe it's not exciting enough. Maybe it's the very act of breaking the rules that gets some people's hearts pumping. Do you not think there could be an element of that?