Letterboxing

[+Us 4 and Jess]

i have been reading through some of the forums and have just been reading about letterboxing

 

does this still go on or has it been overtaken by geocaching?

 

are there any lists of these in can find in uk?

 

any info about letterboxing would be appreciated

[gekocacher]

Still exists in pockets, few over Cldair Idris, one over towards Hexhamshire (the Standing stone), mine an attempt to be as pure as poss ??? Bunny Rabbits Bonus (GCMP2V)

[+John Stead]

You can add Rivington Pike in wildest Lancashire!

[+lizzardman]

There are over 70 on the North York Moors, over 50 in the Lake District several thousand on Dartmoor and a few others besides - some of which have been mentioned on this thread. I have web site addresses with clue lists if you are interested!

[Deego]

You can add Rivington Pike in wildest Lancashire!

Doing that over the weekend (I hope)

[+Kitty Hawk]

I've just done a google search and this is unbelievable - whichever stats are right there are either "Well over 3000" or "almost 21000" letterboxes on Dartmoor. The 21000 claim went on to say that it's 57 per square mile, so it's not a typo.

 

I expected a few dozen.

 

There are also over 12800 members of the 100 club - they've found over 100 letterboxes, I think just on Dartmoor. There's, what, 500 cachers over 100?

 

Well, that throws into light just how densly 'boxes' can be hidden, relating to the thread about just how many caches can be hidden in the UK.

 

interesting - I was just thinking that I'd do some - but there's no point without online league tables, it's bad enough not being able to log trigs as benchmarks.

[+Brenin Tegeingl]

Dont forget that there's no distance restriction on how close letterboxes can be. I've read of instances were there has been one at each end of a fallen tree, and one in the middle. Caches will never reach that amount of saturation.

 

Dave

[+Us 4 and Jess]

so, it is just like geocaching

 

so what is the difference between geocaching and letterboxing?

 

do you find a cache or an item in the open?

 

do they have a website like this one with lists and clues to each find and where you log your finds?

 

does anyone have the web addie?

 

are there any near durham?

 

so many questions...........

[+Kitty Hawk]

Don't think there is a website for logging, although a google search will lead you to official looking sites It looks like you send off for some kind of book of clues, then you send in SAE's for updates.

 

The clues will go along the lines of "walk 20 paces west of the tree stump, them 160 paces north". It seems to be like caching except with no GPS and using a book instead of a website.

 

You then get a rubber stamp made up, stamp the logbook and collect stamps from the logbook.

Edited March 4, 2005 by Kitty Hawk

[+davy boy]

Quite often when searching for caches on Dartmoor we find letterboxes but for some reason we seem to only find the damp ones,it seems to me they are not maintained aswell as geocaches!!!

There are 20-30 boxes on some tors!!

[+John & Hazel]

i have been reading through some of the forums and have just been reading about letterboxing

 

does this still go on or has it been overtaken by geocaching?

 

are there any lists of these in can find in uk?

 

any info about letterboxing would be appreciated

You might get an insight Here

Check out the links as well

[nobby.nobbs]

the clues to find tend to be cryptic and rely on some knowledge of the areas in question. also whereas in caching you can feed in a postcode and get the local caches with boxing you tend to have to choose the box decifer the clue and then go to that location. if that makes sense.

 

you record your find in a book of stamps and leave an impression of your stamp at the box.

 

density of them can be very high! interesting occupation but gps not really needed.

[+The Hungry Caterpillars]

We have been letterboxing for a number of years and would agree about the number of letterboxes being well over 20k.For the official ones many do require local knowledge and a sighting compass coupled to mapreading skills. We consider that letterboxing as a forerunner of geocaching and also different .Although the cache density seems high Dartmoor is strewn with clitterfields and boulders so with a sighting compass and no gps readings they can be a lot harder to find than geocaches. One of the things we really enjoy about it is that some charities put walks out over the moors of perhaps 6 miles with perhaps 10 stamps to find scattered on the walk and it can take all day. I hasten to add that strict rules and regulations are in place for these activities which have been agreed by the powers that be

[+Kitty Hawk]

Oh, I get it now - having recently done a string of caches down the Kennet and Avon canal I can see the attraction of being able to do a decent walk, but with plenty of letterboxes to bag - I had my 6 year old with me, so 9 caches in 7 miles was OK, any less and I think he may not have been so pleasant about it.

[nobby.nobbs]

you got your 6 year old to walk 7 miles!!! that was either some big carrot or a frightening stick you used to do that!

 

my daughter will happliy do several caches but not if it involves that sort of distance.

 

i keep meaning to do some letterboxing but at the moment i have plenty of caches to do still. and i'm hopeless at cryptic clues. call me dumb but they make no sensse to me.