Re: Having a picnic on top of an ancient monument | Forum

thesweetcheat wrote:

tjj wrote:

Yesterday, walked from Uffington to Wayland's Smithy. Was very disappointed to find a group of adults sitting on top of the monument having a picnic, completely oblivious to any one wanting to take a closer look or even a photograph. I'm afraid I didn't have the courage to say anything to them but felt this behaviour to be selfish and disrespectful. How do people here respond to this, I wonder. Or am I just being a grumpy killjoy.

Just as well it wasn't Belas Knap: https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/72072/folklore/belas_knap.html

I must admit to having had my lunch at/on lots of prehistoric sites, but mostly ones where no-one else was likely to be bothered out in the wilds. It's pretty obviously likely to be irritating to others on a 'show site' like Wayland's though, they could have just as easily sat off the monument to eat.

Hah! Great little story about Belas Knap, thanks. In the instance I mentioned at Wayland's Smithy there was also a hyper-active boy of about nine leaping over the stones in a precarious fashion. It turned out he was nothing to do with the picnic group - his mother was sitting on a blanket on the grass. So hopefully the boy was a little annoying ...