Football yob culture - in the Neolithic they would have been outcast. But painting stones - with limewash, for one, burnt ochre for two, is as old as the stones themselves.
Setting up decoys helps to deflect the mindless ones, I've found. Also, and it may seem distasteful, a thriving market in Rock Art would help. If a carved stone were known to be worth '2', say, then the owner would take adequate steps to protect it - barbed wire fence, zero public access etc.
When I found the first cupmarked rocks at Knarsdale the landowner's kid uprooted a couple of dozen boulders and made them into three heaps. Now I've asked them to return them to their holes 'before Stan arrives'. A more likely outcome is getting my basecamp anonomously trashed.
