What happened to “take only photos, leave only memories”?
This year, some idiot(s) decided that they could light a fire in Castlerigg stone circle in Cumbria. Uh, no.
English Heritage said: “It is extremely concerning to see that a fire has been lit within the stone circle, a thoughtless act that damages the scheduled monument and could have resulted in further serious consequences.”
The director of nearby climbing centre Newlands Adventure Centre, Gayle Brooks, said staff had to pick up faeces from their children’s playground before a school group arrived following the celebrations.
“I am not sure why out of all the surrounding fields anyone would choose a children’s play area to use as a toilet,” she said.
Last year there were too many people at the site, disturbing local residents.
The Keswick Reminder reported:
The trust said in a statement: “In recent years, our ranger team has worked hard to build relationships with visitors to Castlerigg Stone Circle during the summer solstice, resulting in the majority now showing a huge amount of respect for the site, cleaning up and litter picking after visiting.
“There is however still a small minority who behave irresponsibly and leave behind mess, taking our ranger teams away from their vital nature conservation work. We respectfully ask that visitors dispose of their litter responsibly, camp in designated campsites and remind them that fires and disposable barbecues are not permitted anywhere in the Lake District National Park. We want to encourage people to get outdoors and to enjoy the Lake District, but to respect the landscape and the people and wildlife that call it home, by leaving no trace and following the Countryside Code.”
I don’t know who these people are or if they identify as Pagans (I have come across assholes in the Pagan community who think they have an absolute right to drum all night at camps, and have even had stones thrown at my tent after asking them to stop—in Shropshire in 1998).
There has always been an element among Pagans who do not think about the wider context and consequences of their actions, and who don’t care about other people.
It’s also possible that the people who did this are part of rave culture or whatever has replaced it.
Either way, stone circles and the archaeology and natural environment around them are a priceless and irreplaceable part of everyone’s heritage, and need to be respected and protected.
I hope the people who commented on Just Stop Oil’s protest at Stonehenge will also comment on this. I doubt the effectiveness of JSO’s methods, since it just got people annoyed with them instead of actually talking about the climate emergency, but lighting a fire in the middle of a stone circle is worse than spraying orange cornflour on it.
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