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stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?


Postby al78 » Sat Aug 11, 2018 7:08 pm

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-45146681

Complaints about the curoius behaviour of stacking stones on beaches. Critics say it spoils pristine environments and can harm wildlife, someone defending it claims it is beneficial for mental health. Seems to me to go against the "leave no trace" guideline. This is comparable to the situation where some people who feel the need to add a stone to a cairn, or even start a new cairn, even one of no significance, which can end up taking the remoteness feeling away from the hills. I don't get it myself, but what do you think?
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby mrssanta » Sat Aug 11, 2018 7:40 pm

in the grand scheme of things, stacking some stones on a beach is pretty harmless I think
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby Caberfeidh » Sun Aug 12, 2018 9:31 am

I find it annoying, but then I am a grumpy old curmudgeon. It depends how big they get, but a big stack could be a danger to a child or faithful hound. And they are just another way of projecting the person's peronallity onto a landscape which does not require it. Not as bad as spray-painted graffitti but still, it says "I was here" when the next person to come along that way was hoping to enjoy the feeling of untouched free landscape.

Wee Piles Of Stones#2.jpg
Wee cairns by the hill road from Glen Garry to Glen Cluanie.
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby Skyelines » Sun Aug 12, 2018 10:58 am

Stacking stones and dropping litter are essentially the same.

A selfish act where the perpetrator gives no thought to the experience and enjoyment of a place for the people that follow after them.
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby crfishwick » Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:07 am

Skyelines wrote:Stacking stones and dropping litter are essentially the same.

A selfish act where the perpetrator gives no thought to the experience and enjoyment of a place for the people that follow after them.

Agreed. Some sad folk about. Also the plethora of useless and dangerously placed cairns erected for no good reason by people who haven't a clue why they were originally placed. There are thousands of them now. :crazy:
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby CharlesT » Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:09 am

'Tis odd behaviour but relatively harmless and who hasn't added a stone to a cairn at times? They are transient and will fall or be knocked over soon enough. So long as no lasting harm is done and no animals or children hurt as a result, let it be. Seekers after immortality should look elsewhere.

Tangentially, I once had a nearby owner of a local mansion who built a large standing stone circle in one of his fields. He wasn't a druid nor did he hold ceremonies therein; he was certainly odd but imaginative.
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby al78 » Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:29 am

CharlesT wrote:'Tis odd behaviour but relatively harmless and who hasn't added a stone to a cairn at times?


Me.
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby Sgurr » Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:30 am

Did he ever come to Scotland, I wonder? A customer in my 2nd hand book shop came in search of books about stone circles. From what sort of aspect, I asked him? Theories as to use, geology, photography. "I want to build one."
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby al78 » Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:32 am

crfishwick wrote:
Skyelines wrote:Stacking stones and dropping litter are essentially the same.

A selfish act where the perpetrator gives no thought to the experience and enjoyment of a place for the people that follow after them.

Agreed. Some sad folk about. Also the plethora of useless and dangerously placed cairns erected for no good reason by people who haven't a clue why they were originally placed. There are thousands of them now. :crazy:


The useless cairns is potentially worse if you get inexperienced walkers following them on a road to nowhere thinking they represent a feasible route.
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby crfishwick » Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:32 am

al78 wrote:
CharlesT wrote:'Tis odd behaviour but relatively harmless and who hasn't added a stone to a cairn at times?


Me.


Touche
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby CharlesT » Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:55 am

Sgurr wrote:Did he ever come to Scotland, I wonder? A customer in my 2nd hand book shop came in search of books about stone circles. From what sort of aspect, I asked him? Theories as to use, geology, photography. "I want to build one."


Wasn't Andy Goldsworthy by any chance?
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby Caberfeidh » Sun Aug 12, 2018 1:02 pm

CharlesT wrote: Tangentially, I once had a nearby owner of a local mansion who built a large standing stone circle in one of his fields. He wasn't a druid nor did he hold ceremonies therein; he was certainly odd but imaginative.


When I hired a large industrial tracked excavator for my croft, I dug up lots of large boulders. Stuck for something to do with them, I dug sockets for them and arranged them in a circle. They seem part of the landscape now, and a local raven has taken to posing on them, maybe he reckons it's his job to look eldritch on a stone circle.
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby Sgurr » Sun Aug 12, 2018 1:16 pm

CharlesT wrote:
Sgurr wrote:Did he ever come to Scotland, I wonder? A customer in my 2nd hand book shop came in search of books about stone circles. From what sort of aspect, I asked him? Theories as to use, geology, photography. "I want to build one."


Wasn't Andy Goldsworthy by any chance?



Who knows. It was the early 1970s and he was (I guessed then) postgraduate age.
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby Robinho08 » Sun Aug 12, 2018 1:39 pm

I don't like them, that and the new phenomenon of drawing on rocks and leaving them on summit cairns. Leave no trace!

NTS volunteers removed all the rock piles in the Lost Valley and they claim the removal of rocks to build them in the Fairy Glen, Skye is causing damage.
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Re: stone stacking on beaches, bad or ok?

Postby CharlesT » Sun Aug 12, 2018 1:47 pm

Caberfeidh wrote:
CharlesT wrote: Tangentially, I once had a nearby owner of a local mansion who built a large standing stone circle in one of his fields. He wasn't a druid nor did he hold ceremonies therein; he was certainly odd but imaginative.


When I hired a large industrial tracked excavator for my croft, I dug up lots of large boulders. Stuck for something to do with them, I dug sockets for them and arranged them in a circle. They seem part of the landscape now, and a local raven has taken to posing on them, maybe he reckons it's his job to look eldritch on a stone circle.


Splendid! Just imagine what the landscape would look like if our Neolithic forbears had had access to such. :D
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