A warning that illegal climbers are causing “spectacular” damage to Neolithic Silbury Hill, the largest man made mound in Europe, has come from English Heritage archaeologist Jim Leary.
He says that trespassers on the currently rain-soaked monument, part of the Avebury World Heritage site near Marlborough, are eroding the soft ground as they clamber up the sides of the 131 foot high mound.
Mr Leary, who lead the last major excavation project on Silbury Hill, is concerned that climbers are “leaving some really rather hideous scars” on the hill, believed to date back to 2400 BC.
Access to the prehistoric mound has been prohibited for a number of decades and people should not be attempting to climb it but foreign tourists in particular are believed to be the culprits.
“They are going up and it is very wet and they are eroding the side of the hill,” Mr Leary told BBC Radio Wiltshire. “I would really ask people not to go up the hill. It is leaving some really rather hideous scars and eroding our beautiful monument.”
The purpose and significance of Silbury Hill, which is mostly made from chalk and is believed to have been altered by the Anglo-Saxons, remains a mystery.
The latest downpours in one of the wettest years on record has led to it being almost completely cut off by a moat with surrounding fields also underwater. But according to Mr Leary the flood water was nothing to worry about.
“It is not a very common phenomenon but it has happened before in 2007 when it was very wet, and also in 2000,” he pointed out.
“The mound has been there for 4,500 years and I’m sure it will continue to stand despite the weather.”
