Robin Hood fate for the stones of St Bees
sir – I read with interest that it is illegal to remove stones from public beaches (report, August 22).
It is a well-publicised tradition that when undertaking Alfred Wainwright’s coast-to-coast walk, a pebble is taken from the beach at the start, at St Bees, and carried 192 miles to the finish at Robin Hood’s Bay, where it is thrown into the sea.
Thousands of people complete this walk each year.
Kevin Leece
Gravesend, Kent
sir – When visiting Yosemite National Park I was impressed by the advice of John Muir, who was behind its foundation: “Leave only footprints, take only photographs.”
If tourists removed one pebble from every place they visited the sites would soon be destroyed. Jennifer Holiday
Bromham, Wiltshire
sir – Does that mean we can no longer collect fossils here on the beaches of the Jurassic Coast? I have been doing it for years – are my fossils stolen goods? That should put the tourists off.
Julie Juniper
Bridport, Dorset