Castlerigg forum 26 room
Image by Jane
Castlerigg

castlerigg

close
more_vert

I guess if the all we have to worry about is some fool scratching his declaration of love onto the stones then we're on to a winner. What I mean is if this is the biggest threat that the stones face then all is well. Of course this is not the case elsewhere but in the case of Castlerigg, it's a robust circle made of large tough stones that have survived thousands of years of Cumbrian weather, ploughing, animals, trippers, new age fools climbing all over them, and even christian purges. So I guess at least at Castlerigg we can say that the stones are fairly safe.
Considering the volume of visitors to Castlerigg it's hardly suprising that some damage may occur. Take the long view, Castlerigg is robust enough to act as a Cumbrian freak magnet thus keeping the dozens of surrounding Cumbrian sites relatively free of nutters.
One thing that I would advise is to beware of knee jerk reactions to one-off incidents. Do you really want to see Castlerigg caged like Stonehenge.

"freak magnet"
teehee - that's just the phrase.
It's still a shame though that people think carving their name on a 3000 yr old stone does something for their reputation or ego. Oh well.

True - but it's still depressing & there's always the danger of it encouraging others to do the same.

There ain't no easy answer tho. Mebbe no answer. :^(

love

Moth

fitzcoraldo wrote:
Do you really want to see Castlerigg caged like Stonehenge.
Funnily enough Stonehenge has been over the years ragweeked, painted on, the scene of hilarious victorian day outings with cars drawn up and into the circle, it has always been a site that has drawn the public to wonder at, but at the same time it never stopped all those 19th c amateur archaelogists from "digging" the barrows around about. I expect the love of Stacey will fade on the stone as it will for the person she loves ;)