UK Benchmarks

[+SpankyBanksy]

Hi Cachers in the UK,

 

Can someone help or point me in the right direction?

 

On the official Geocache website it has 'FIND A BENCHMARK'.

OK then click on it!! Then search for one in the UK...

It seems to be only geared for US Benchmarks which are disks.

So can this function be used in the UK?

 

On further investigation we have in the UK thousands of Flush brackets, Fundamental Benchmarks and Trig points. All there ready to be discovered, there are websites devoted to it. Check these web sites out:

 

http://www.bench-marks.org.uk/

http://www.trigpointinguk.com/

 

I've done some Flush brackets as caches of my own. But there are far too many to stick caches at. So is it possible to link up with these Ordnance Survey references and be able to use this feature on the GEOCACHE website in the UK?

 

It will open up more excitement for Cachers in the UK.

 

Please discuss if it is possible.....

[Bill93]

What it would take is 1) finding a concise data base of these points in a form that could be efficiently transferred by computer and 2) getting Geocaching management interested in putting them on the site.

 

The Benchmark data base we now have was imported from the US National Geodetic Survey about 2001 or so and has not been updated since. The update process would not be as easy for them as the first import, due to complexities in combining old and new data. Also, the newer data is not available in the identical form (on CD) they got the original.

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Hi SpankyBanksy -

 

Groundspeak also runs the Waymarking site, and on that there is a Waymarking category for U.K. and Ireland Trigpoints.

 

Unfortunately, Groundspeak did not decide to parse in the trigpoint databases, (including many others here in the U.S.), so if you find any, you enter the coordinates and description. It does provide a place to log finds though, as well as the usual challenge of finding and visiting the trigpoints as is done here.

 

If you click on "show additional information" on the U.K. and Ireland Trigpoints category page, you will see some more related URLs. There's a little over 2 thousand trigpoints logged (waymarked) there already.

[Mesa Mike]

Hey Banksy,

 

Maybe this is what happened to the UK Benchmarks:

 

[+SpankyBanksy]

Hey Banksy,

 

Maybe this is what happened to the UK Benchmarks:

 

 

Hahah lmao Yep you've found me. I am the original Banksy.

[+FunLovingGeocacher]

Maybe someone clever enough can devise a Firefox add on to subtly alter the Find a Benchmark (http://www.geocaching.com/mark/ link to a British version?

[+Juicepig]

We have the same problem in Canada - Tried for many years to get Groundspeak to open up to the idea of allowing canadian benchmarks on the site

 

After Waymarking came in though any request was just met with "Go to Waymarking to log it"... hmmf..