Trig points?

Depends on your definition of a "top" with a trig point. If you just
mean visiting all the trigs, I believe there are over 7,000 of them in
the UK.

This is the website you'll need:

http://www.trigpointinguk.com/info/

The highest number visited by anyone on that site appears to be about
5,500. So I'm guessing no-one's done it... yet.

I have to say, that whilst it's always nice to see one of the little
grey fellas on a summit, the appeal might lessen after having visited
several thousand of them including the ones in the fens...

Cheers

Anth

Please link to: http://www.wheresthepath.com/index.htm

"www.wheresthepath.co.uk" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Depends on your definition of a "top" with a trig point. If you just
mean visiting all the trigs, I believe there are over 7,000 of them in
the UK.

This is the website you'll need:

http://www.trigpointinguk.com/info/

The highest number visited by anyone on that site appears to be about
5,500. So I'm guessing no-one's done it... yet.

I have to say, that whilst it's always nice to see one of the little
grey fellas on a summit, the appeal might lessen after having visited
several thousand of them including the ones in the fens...

Thanks for the Info;-) Many years ago, I had ambitions, to try the ultimate
and get to all trigged heights;-)

I'd guess the first person to do it without "assistance," Would be my
hero;-)
--
Craven and Pendle Birds:
Bird watching in and around Craven & Pendle.
North Yorkshire and East Lancashire.
http://craven-and-pendle-birding.org/

C R Fishwick said:

"www.wheresthepath.co.uk" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Depends on your definition of a "top" with a trig point. If you just
mean visiting all the trigs, I believe there are over 7,000 of them
in the UK.

This is the website you'll need:

http://www.trigpointinguk.com/info/

The highest number visited by anyone on that site appears to be about
5,500. So I'm guessing no-one's done it... yet.

I have to say, that whilst it's always nice to see one of the little
grey fellas on a summit, the appeal might lessen after having visited
several thousand of them including the ones in the fens...

Thanks for the Info;-) Many years ago, I had ambitions, to try the
ultimate and get to all trigged heights;-)

I'd guess the first person to do it without "assistance," Would be my
hero;-)

Well, I could start you off on one leg.
More than a dozen years ago a friend and I came up with the Suffolk Bottoms
route, which picks off all the under 30m trig points in Suffolk shown on the
1:50,000 map; there are quite a few of them, including Bawdsey at 0m.

About 65 miles if you use the train to get back, plus two ferries. We did
it by bicycle one very hot summer day.

- Nigel

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

"Nigel Cliffe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

C R Fishwick said:

"www.wheresthepath.co.uk" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Depends on your definition of a "top" with a trig point. If you just
mean visiting all the trigs, I believe there are over 7,000 of them
in the UK.

This is the website you'll need:

http://www.trigpointinguk.com/info/

The highest number visited by anyone on that site appears to be about
5,500. So I'm guessing no-one's done it... yet.

I have to say, that whilst it's always nice to see one of the little
grey fellas on a summit, the appeal might lessen after having visited
several thousand of them including the ones in the fens...

Thanks for the Info;-) Many years ago, I had ambitions, to try the
ultimate and get to all trigged heights;-)

I'd guess the first person to do it without "assistance," Would be my
hero;-)

Well, I could start you off on one leg.
More than a dozen years ago a friend and I came up with the Suffolk
Bottoms route, which picks off all the under 30m trig points in Suffolk
shown on the 1:50,000 map; there are quite a few of them, including
Bawdsey at 0m.

About 65 miles if you use the train to get back, plus two ferries. We did
it by bicycle one very hot summer day.

Lol, I've changed my mind, I won't bother, although my count at the moment
is X -)

If someone actually tried to do all and succeeded to hit all trig points,
I'd be impressed;-) Munro's & Corbett's too easy nowadays;-) Even I've done
the former;-)
--
Craven and Pendle Birds:
Bird watching in and around Craven & Pendle.
North Yorkshire and East Lancashire.
http://craven-and-pendle-birding.org/

Quoted message said:

I have to say, that whilst it's always nice to see one of the little
grey fellas on a summit, the appeal might lessen after having visited
several thousand of them including the ones in the fens...

And some are in rather 'interesting' places too ....... see

http://www.thewalkzone.co.uk/trig

which is on Broadhalfpenny Down near Hambledon, Hampshire - and almost in a
ditch. At this time of year it is hidden by the vegetation, so go in winter
for this one!

--
Sandy Saunders @ www.thewalkzone.co.uk
'Mountains or Mole Hills, summiting
still brings the same excitement!'

C R Fishwick said:

Anyone know whether
anyone one has indeed "sumitted" on all the "tops" that have a trig
point?

Quoted message said:

"Nigel Cliffe" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> Depends on your definition of a "top" with a trig point. If you
> just mean visiting all the trigs, I believe there are over 7,000
> of them in the UK.

It's important to be aware that many trigs are not on the "top" of anything.
Although many were placed directly on summits, their purpose was not to mark
the highest point, but to create a network of visible points to use as a
basis for mapping the country. Therefore visibility from other trigs was the
most important thing. Very often the highest point was visible from other
points, but often it wasn't, particularly if it needed to be seen from lower
down, in which case trigs would be placed on crests instead (often near to
the top, but not directly on it).

So if you were to filter the list of 7000+ trigs to include only the ones
that actually mark summits, you'd end up with a much shorter list. Has
anyone ever produced such a list?

Of course, there is a grey area, depending how strictly you interpret the
meaning of "top". If by "top" you mean the actual highest point, many trigs
are not placed exactly on the top. A lot of tops are marked by cairns for
example, and the trig is placed just a few metres away. Garreg Lwyd is a
good example of this. In other cases the trig may appear to mark the summit
on the map, but when you get there it doesn't. Arenig Fach for example has a
trig and a cairn, but neither mark the summit. There's an obvious higher
point a short distance away which isn't marked by anything, but you can't
tell that from the map. Most people probably assume the trig to mark the
summit though.

So if you want to be really strict about it, this would weed out a lot of
apparent "summit" trigs, but if you're not that strict you could include
them, provided they are pretty close to the top. I guess you'd have to
decide how close they'd need to be to qualify. For example, I wouldn't
include the trig on Drygarn Fawr, which is 65m away from the summit cairn
and is 4m lower. The trig on Fan Fawr definitely wouldn't qualify, being
665m away from the summit!

Then there's the issue of height. Most summit lists only list summits above
a particular altitude, so if you wanted to limit yourself to "tops" that are
included in existing lists, you'd end up with a very short list indeed.

Of course, you could set your own altitude limit, like say 300m (1000ft) for
example. This would weed out all the trigs on tiny hills. But again, you
might end up with quite a short list. In fact, it would be much simpler to
set an altitude limit and bag all trigs above that altitude, irrespective of
whether they're on summits or not. This would give you a much shorter and
more practical list. If you set a limit of say 500m or 600m, you'd stay
within the realm of hill walking, so you wouldn't have to bother with all
those low level farmland trigs.

Here's a list of the number of trigs over certain altitudes:

Over 1000m - 37 trigs
Over 900m - 72 trigs
Over 800m - 137 trigs
Over 700m - 239 trigs
Over 600m - 392 trigs
Over 500m - 676 trigs
Over 400m - 1160 trigs
Over 300m - 1813 trigs

So as you can see, the numbers of high altitude trigs are quite manageable.

Of course, you could further sub-divide these lists by including only
certain areas, so for example you could do all the trigs in England over
600m, or all the trigs in the Lake District over 300m. Or simply all the
trigs in the Lake District. Whatever suits your preference.

Another way of doing it would be to bag all the trigs that are located on
open ground (i.e. non-farmland, forestry or urban), although compiling such
a list would take quite a bit of study, you'd need to use aerial photographs
for that. And again you could limit yourself to a pariticular area. This
would avoid access problems and ensure that all the trigs you visited were
"wild".

Quoted message said:

Lol, I've changed my mind, I won't bother, although my count at the
moment is X -)

Don't give up on trigs just yet. As you can see, there are plenty of ways to
cut down the list to a manageable size and still provide yourself with a
challenge.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

The other problem of course is that the number of trig points is sadly
reducing, see:

http://www.wheresthepath.com/marilyns/marilyns_done_2004_5/19_nine_barrow_down.htm

and

http://www.wheresthepath.com/county_tops/ct_bridgend.htm

Does anyone know if and how they're protected by law, and if there's
any way we can report trig point abuse (especially as in the first
link above, where it's clearly been uprooted and dumped by the
landowner, although I don't know if s/he had permission to do so).

Cheers

Anth

urlwww.wheresthepath.co.uk/url said:

The other problem of course is that the number of trig points is sadly
reducing, see:

http://www.wheresthepath.com/marilyns/marilyns_done_2004_5/19_nine_barrow_down.htm

and

http://www.wheresthepath.com/county_tops/ct_bridgend.htm

Does anyone know if and how they're protected by law, and if there's
any way we can report trig point abuse (especially as in the first
link above, where it's clearly been uprooted and dumped by the
landowner, although I don't know if s/he had permission to do so).

How about this one which has been uprooted and dumped by higher
authority?

http://www.p-t-cook.freeserve.co.uk/pans/sgritheall.htm

High points often attract lightning so I wouldn't be so sure it was
the landowner.
--
Phil Cook, last hill: Angletarn Pikes via Beda Fell.

Excellent panorama Phil - wish I was there!

The trig on Nine Baroow Downs had been moved several hundred metres
and replaced by a radio mast... not sure lightning is quite up to
doing that!

Anth

"www.wheresthepath.co.uk" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Does anyone know if and how they're protected by law, and if there's
any way we can report trig point abuse (especially as in the first
link above, where it's clearly been uprooted and dumped by the
landowner, although I don't know if s/he had permission to do so).

Most Trigs are redundant now so if a landowner wants rid of one on his
property there will be little opposition....as long as it's not part of the
active network!

Graham

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the wonderful
person Graham Seed <[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

"www.wheresthepath.co.uk" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Does anyone know if and how they're protected by law, and if there's
any way we can report trig point abuse (especially as in the first
link above, where it's clearly been uprooted and dumped by the
landowner, although I don't know if s/he had permission to do so).

Most Trigs are redundant now so if a landowner wants rid of one on his
property there will be little opposition....as long as it's not part of the
active network!

Presumably saves the OS some rent on them too? Actually it's not just
land owners - the Shropshire Council flatted the one on top of Brown
Clee Hill (Abdon Burf) and replaced it with a Topograph. The 'spider'
and sundry bits of the old pillar are embedded in the new steps, IIRC. I
approve of the steps and Topograph, but wish they'd kept the trig point
too.

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
8,630 Km walked. 1,677Km PROWs surveyed. 30.5% complete.

"GSV Three Minds in a Can" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Presumably saves the OS some rent on them too? Actually it's not just land
owners - the Shropshire Council flatted the one on top of Brown Clee Hill
(Abdon Burf) and replaced it with a Topograph. The 'spider' and sundry
bits of the old pillar are embedded in the new steps, IIRC. I approve of
the steps and Topograph, but wish they'd kept the trig point too.

Rent? I suppose when the Army came along and built concrete pillars it was
for King and Country!
Spiders and Flush Brackets were fair game for surveyors who found demolished
trigs. Rumour has it i've got an FB in one of my outbuildings :-)
It was an absolute abstrad to extract......

Graham