Lundy Island

[+TheOldfields]

We're off to Lundy Island on Saturday and were looking forward to grabbing the caches there. It seems though that all of the physical container ones have been archived e.g. http://coord.info/GCJGPW

 

The archive log says "This cache has been archived at the request of Lundy Island land management. Please retrieve the cache container as soon as possible. Contact Geocaching HQ with questions." but we're too late to do that now.

 

Seems strange as the letterboxes there are featured as one of the reasons to visit: http://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/lundyisland/discovering-lundy/activities/ I wonder if they've been shut down as well?

 

Does anyone have any background on what the problem is?

[+Bear and Ragged]

Probably permission. Or rather lack of it.

 

Letterboxes set by the landowner and maintained.

Cache left with no permission and no maintenance...

 

ETA.

And, having read the logs, it sounds like a lot of cachers are confusing the nearby letterbox for the cache.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Bear and Ragged

[+The Blorenges]

From the UK & Ireland GC Reviewers' Tea Bar (on facebook), 12th August, 2014, posted by Graculus:

 

"Lundy Island. Recently the Landmark Trust who manage the island asked for the geocaches there to be archived. There was a little confusion about whether you would or wouldn't allow any geocaches to be placed there. This has been clarified and I have updated the UK Geocaching Wiki entry. Basically no physical geocaches are allowed but Earthcaches may be - with permission."

 

Link to agreement in the UK Geocaching Wiki.

 

MrsB

[+TheOldfields]

Ah. Many thanks for the clarification Mrs B.

 

A bit strange though that they promote letterboxing while banning physical geocaches.

Edited September 5, 2014 by TheOldfields

[+TheOldfields]

Got back on Friday. Apparently (according to a bloke in the Marisco Tavern, so therefore must be true) they banned physical caches because they were causing confusion when people were looking for the letterboxes, but finding caches. Bloke in pub also mentioned they wanted to keep them safe, but as they're looks to be one near the edge of the Devil's Limekiln (a very long drop very nearby) not sure how accurate that is.

 

Would recommend a trip there to anyone. We were lucky with very good weather but a very very laid back place. Brings a new meaning to the old song "We're busy doing nothing." as plenty to do, but only if you don't mind it not really being that consequential. We'll definitely be returning.

[+The Other Stu]

Chatting with a couple of reviewers at the weekend about this.

 

I think what it needs is for someone to approach Lundy and see if they would allow Geocaching.com to list the letterboxes as letterbox hybrids (clearly, permission is needed, particularly as rules say you can't have caches on Lundy currently).

 

This would be a nice compromise surely?

[+Bear and Ragged]

Chatting with a couple of reviewers at the weekend about this.

 

I think what it needs is for someone to approach Lundy and see if they would allow Geocaching.com to list the letterboxes as letterbox hybrids (clearly, permission is needed, particularly as rules say you can't have caches on Lundy currently).

 

This would be a nice compromise surely?

 

Nice idea, but.

 

Any TB's left in them by cachers are seriously open to 'going missing' by the actions of non-cachers...

[+Happy Humphrey]

I wonder if they'd allow geocaches if the letterboxes were treated to the same saturation rules (i.e. no cache within 0.1 miles of a letterbox)? Probably not.

 

Also, it's interesting that an Earthcache needs permission. If one was set up without permission would the Landmark Trust send someone out to the site and remove it?

 

I guess that Waymarks are also going to need permission, as they are often similar to Earthcaches (i.e. go to the coordinates and observe something, or go somewhere on the island, observe something then take the coordinates).

[+MartyBartfast]

Chatting with a couple of reviewers at the weekend about this.

 

I think what it needs is for someone to approach Lundy and see if they would allow Geocaching.com to list the letterboxes as letterbox hybrids (clearly, permission is needed, particularly as rules say you can't have caches on Lundy currently).

 

This would be a nice compromise surely?

 

I doubt they would go for this. They are making money out of letterboxes by selling the "clue" sheets in the shop, if the exact co-ords for the letterboxes were available on GC.com for free they might sell fewer info sheets.

[+The Other Stu]

Chatting with a couple of reviewers at the weekend about this.

 

I think what it needs is for someone to approach Lundy and see if they would allow Geocaching.com to list the letterboxes as letterbox hybrids (clearly, permission is needed, particularly as rules say you can't have caches on Lundy currently).

 

This would be a nice compromise surely?

 

I doubt they would go for this. They are making money out of letterboxes by selling the "clue" sheets in the shop, if the exact co-ords for the letterboxes were available on GC.com for free they might sell fewer info sheets.

 

Unless of course they could rent out Etrex 10s for £10 a day

[team tisri]

Chatting with a couple of reviewers at the weekend about this.

 

I think what it needs is for someone to approach Lundy and see if they would allow Geocaching.com to list the letterboxes as letterbox hybrids (clearly, permission is needed, particularly as rules say you can't have caches on Lundy currently).

 

This would be a nice compromise surely?

 

I doubt they would go for this. They are making money out of letterboxes by selling the "clue" sheets in the shop, if the exact co-ords for the letterboxes were available on GC.com for free they might sell fewer info sheets.

 

Interesting if they would object to something because they can make money selling clue sheets. All it would take is one person to buy the clue sheet, find the letterboxes, and then post the precise GPS coordinates on Some Website Somewhere and their income dries up. Especially if whoever did it was able to do a bit of search engine optimisation so anyone looking for letterboxes on Lundy saw their site in the first page of results.