A swastika carved into the crag at Burbage North, Peak District, has been filled in with a mix of sand from the crag, small stones, resin, superglue and small stones by BMC Access & Conservation Officer (England) Jon Fullwood this April.
Jon says, “A local climber reported finding a swastika next to Holly Tree Arete and some more graffiti nearby, next to Monkey Crack, with the initials JB. All carved into the rock, the latter in quite a prominent place on the crag. It can’t have been quick to do and it looks really fresh, so I think it likely was created by the same person on the same day. It’s hard to imagine it was done by a climber, it looks more like just random graffiti - perhaps by a young person who doesn’t appreciate the importance of this symbol, though it could also be a fascist lunatic roaming the Peak!
“To fix it I took home some sand from the crag and dried it in the oven. Back at the crag I used a couple different ways of filling the graffiti in to see how it would come out, using differing combinations of sand, small stones, superglue and resin and a piece of banana skin as a tool to dab it on with and smooth it down. It took about half an hour to fill in the swastika and a further hour or so for the rest. The carvings take quite a lot of superglue to fill in, but I managed not to stick myself to the rock - although quite a few of the small bits of stone stuck to me!
“If you see any graffiti on crags in your area please report it to your local BMC Access Rep. If you are an Access Rep looking for advice on how to remove or repair graffiti at crags please get in touch with me at jon.fullwood@thebmc.co.uk.”
What's an Access Rep?
BMC Access Reps are volunteers who offer a first point of contact for climbers or walkers with questions about local access. Find your local representative here.
The BMC Regional Access Database (RAD) is the best place to find the most up to date information about crags and access situations for the whole of England and Wales. This spring and summer please take a look at the 30-40 updates that have recently been made to accommodate nesting birds in climbing areas.
DOWNLOAD: the BMC RAD app
Get all the info on crags with the RAD (Regional Access Database) app from the BMC! Available now for Android and iOS, it's free and comes with a host of new features like navigation and parking, weather and tidal updates, and of course information on restrictions or notes on access advice. Get it here now!
RAD is community led and your comments help keep it up to date so don’t be afraid to add any relevant information after a crag visit which might be useful for other visitors – anything from conditions on the crag, favourite routes or reports of rockfall/other recent changes to the crag are all useful for other climbers visiting.
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