You Can't Climb Ayers Rock Anymore, Its Sacred Now.

[piggynose]

luckily i've climbed it, not recently, but over 25 yrs ago.

[naomi24]

It always has been considered sacred in Aboriginal culture. It's just that no one else paid heed to that.

[Old_Geezer]

Was about to say the same.

Unsure some myth should dominate any right to wander, but I guess it's not unreasonable to not cause offence. Give it a century or so and maybe they'll have changed their minds.

[Prudie]

I'm hardly surprised, when I was young I used to wander all over Stonehenge when you could touch the stones.
It'll be Everest next...

[aelmpvw]

there'll probably be a mad rush to climb it when they officially make it illegal to do so

[sandyRoe]

Whether it's sacred or not the end to damage caused by thousands of pairs of boots can only be a good thing.

[Old_Geezer]

One reason why I'm in no rush to visit Stonehenge. Parents never took me when one could go up to them, now; well may as well look at photos. Probably never bother now. I think they are just saving them for present day druids.

[Prudie]

OG fully agree, it's not worth visiting anymore really

[sandyRoe]

A bit like the Giant's Causeway, worth seeing but not worth going to see?

[Khandro]

//It'll be Everest next...//

I hope so, tourist climbers have been graffiti -ing the mountain top and are to be named and shamed according to a report yesterday.
Nothing really is sacred anymore.

[jim360]

There's a pleasant walk that takes you on an approach to Stonehenge from the south. If you are lucky with the weather then the stones are lit up wonderfully as you walk a mile slightly downhill towards them. Totally worth it.

Going up close is a different matter, but then again I'd rather not be able to touch the stones than to see them damaged in the long-term (not to mention the Victorian approach to "honouring" ancient monuments by destroying them, eg Hadrian's wall). And even innocent touching can do historical buildings no good.

[Prudie]

Yes I think we all know the reasoning and agree these monuments should be cordoned off from humans which is why I said hardly surprising.

[Khandro]

Ref. above;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/11/china-to-name-and-shame-tourists-who-leave-graffiti-on-mt-everes/

[jim360]

Damage doesn't have to be deliberate or malicious, of course. I still recall in horror the moment I was running my hand along the wall of King's College's chapel -- and a piece of it broke off in my hands. For a few seconds I was terrified that the entire thing was going to collapse then and there!

[albaqwerty]

I recall reading some years back that a team of climbers went to Everest to pick up rubbish left behind by other climbers.

Wonder how much rubbish has been left on the top of Ayers Rock ?

[naomi24]

Little makes me angrier than people who have no respect for such places – or for the environment. As a recreational diver I’ve had furious arguments with morons who think nothing of destroying the fragile undersea world they’re intruding upon. I hasten to add that, since we are beneath the waves, the rows have been conducted in sign language – but I’m pretty sure I’ve made myself crystal clear!

[albaqwerty]

I bet you made yourself heard Naomi !!

Some people are either ignorant or inconsiderate and think nothing of leaving garbage.

Mr Alba is an angler, apart from the lost lure or six, he always takes everything back home with him.

[naomi24]

albaqwerty, I can't believe people are ignorant in the true sense of the word - but ignorant they are.

[albaqwerty]

and then there's all the space junk floating about, humans are really a filthy race

[naomi24]

That's for sure!

[DTCwordfan]

naomi, don't come down here and visit Cornwall - our lanes are in a disgraceful state from litter louts and fly-tipping (just had the council shift a mattress which was dumped out the back of here). Why they can't gear up some teams from the Job Centre and pay them some extra for say 20 hours a week, I do not know.....I have put this to our MP......

Mind you, from what I have seen Surrey, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire and Devon aren't much better.