[Teaboy]

I was originally going to put this in the bouldering board as I thought it may have implications for bouldering but decided it might make an interesting topic on its own. It seems a number of sites in the UK are competing to become UNESCO World Heritage Sites (http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/38-british-sites-compete-for-world-heritage-status-2020609.html) so, as outdoors people does anyone have any views on which of these are deserving of the accolade? Personally the Rows in Chester would get my vote

[slackline]

"The Lake District" would get my vote, stunning "natural" beauty.  Also the "Slate Industry of North Wales" on the proviso that Dinorwig quarries remain open for climbing. 

[Teaboy]

I like the Lake District as well and by comparison with the rest of England its head and shoulders abov the rest, I just think on a world scale its not that amazing, you only have to travel a couple of hundred miles north to Scotland to find 'better' if it is possible to quantify prettyness in this way (which I guess you are not)

[dave]

Its a shame nobody submitted the schoolroom a few years back.

[slackline]

Its not just how "pretty" somewhere is though, its to do with the heritage, and the Lakes have important heritage in terms of the literature connections of Wordsworth and other authors who drew inspiration from the area.  Similarly with the slate quarries there is important heritage of an industry that shipped worldwide (The Australian in Porthmadog is named so because of the sailors who drank there whilst ships were loaded to ship slate to the other side of the world according to the plaque outside*).




* Which has reminded me that on Friday I noticed a plaque on the entrance to the building I work in and apparently Samuel Plimsoll (of Plimsoll Line fame) used to live across the road (and would have had some bearing on the voyages of the ships carrying the slate).

[Teaboy]

Its a shame nobody submitted the schoolroom a few years back.

I thought they just applied for listed building status and a Lottery grant for an attached Ben Moon museum but couldn't raise the additonal funding required.

[SA Chris]

I'm never sure what to make of these things.

What does it mean if it gets accepted? Do they get funding for preserving it, does it up the profile of the place? Does it mean the hordes who have never heard of it now descend?

Some places like Arbroath Abbey, for example, are stunningly beautiful, and it getting approval would maybe raise the profile of the area, but raising the profile of somewhere like the Fow Country up in Northern Scotland may cause potential problems for such a delicate ecological area.

Also, have they actually been to Merthyr Tydfil?? Don't recall it being worth much at all.

[Jaspersharpe]

How about The Tor.

[dave]

Are you telling me it isn't already a UWHS?
 

[Teaboy]

Only Pinches Wall and Stone, the rest no.

[aLICErOBERTSfANkLUB]

"The Lake District" would get my vote, stunning "natural" beauty.  Also the "Slate Industry of North Wales" on the proviso that Dinorwig quarries remain open for climbing. 

I'd veto the Lake District after the slimy bastards lied to the waterskiers when they dumped them off Ullswater in the 70s and gave a "categorical promise" that it could continue on Lake Windermere "in perpuity", before applying a speed limit some 20 or 30 years later.

[Johnny Brown]

I just think on a world scale its not that amazing, you only have to travel a couple of hundred miles north to Scotland to find 'better' if it is possible to quantify prettyness in this way

It certainly is, and The Lakes is far prettier than anywhere in Scotland. The Highlands are far more dramatic, often wilder, but altogether a more rugged, raw kind of beauty. Amongst Landscape photographers (who make a living through their ability to judge prettiness) its pretty much agreed that The Lakes is one of the prettiest landscapes in the world. Obviously hills and lakes are always a good start, but the way the drama of the hills is softened by a gentle rounding of the edges, and the sympathy with which the human influence has settled gently but deeply into the land - all of this is rare indeed.

[Norton Sharley]

Are you telling me it isn't already a UWHS?
 

unbelievably wobbly heap (of) shite ?