When I discovered that cartoons were lying to me about the authenticity and makeup of Rarebit I was crushed harder then seeing my dad as Santa Claus.
I grew up around Caernarfon and studied at Bangor 
We used to drunkenly āassault the castleā when out on the piss (read: running up to the castle walls and kicking them, shouting āYMOSOD AR Y GASTELL!!!ā).
It is a properly beautiful country. Iām long overdue a visit.
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I have literally run through caernarfon screaming in joy. It is my third favorite castle.
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What are your all-time, top 5 castles?
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Dunstanburgh
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/dunstanburgh-castle/
Caerlaverock
Caernarfon
Hermitage castle
http://www.visitscotland.com/cms-images/5x3-large/regions/scottish-borders/hermitage-castle
Caernarfon
Dunluce castle
http://stock-free-images.net/pictures/23/images/wallpaper-of-dunluce-castle.jpg
Cahir
I love ruins. They are always a surprise, and every visit to these locations was magical.
Dunstan I illegally scaled up blocked entrances. Caer had a family of deer and a trebuchet. Carn is perhaps the best preserved of the iron ring. At hermitage I saw a ghost and have it on film (no, it wasnāt a rock :D), dunluce I almost fell into the sea, and cahir had the greatest flooded oubliette.
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Butā¦ Is it desecration because its art?
If nobody cared, would it still be art?
Would it even be vandalism?
If somebody told you that they climbed Mt. Everest and they took a piece of rock from the top, would you call it desecration?
Its a very interesting thing heās done here. Its not just art, its performance art, it means nothing if you donāt buy in.
But you have to buy in all the way, āIn for a penny, in for a poundā sort of thing.
Once you realize it matters, youāve got to answer why.
Is it because the mountain is special in some way? Its not even the tallest mountain in the UK (According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountains_and_hills_of_the_United_Kingdom)
Does every list of mountains now need to be updated by one inch less for Scafell Pike?
If he gives the rock back, will it be super glued back on the mountain?
Will that undo the desecration or is a more āorganicā solution needed?
What if the display gets moved permanently to the top of the mountain? Can we now ask what is our relationship to an arbitrary statistic?
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But it is the highest in England.
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I think he needs to expand his mountaintop collection. Display them at their relative heights.
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I was taking the piss there. Though to be honest the old Irish texts relating to taking mushrooms and going to sweat houses are ambiguous at best. IIRC it is usually believed that the use of psychotropic preparations was the means of divining the true nature of the law for presiding Brehons, for example, but it is difficult to be sure.
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I grew up a few km from Cahir - I donāt know how many times I explored it as a child. They have a cannonball stuck in the wall near the main gate, which was Cromwellās calling card before they surrendered.
Outside of the British Isles, I thought El Morro in Puerto Rico was cool:
Cannons on six levels ready to destroy anything coming through the straits, and a smaller fortress on the other side to close any gaps.
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Ancient Irish elk summons you home.
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There are other, cryptic, ancient Celtic texts that speak of a ritual imbibing of liquids and a frantic careening through the countryside for āa pair of brown eyesā.
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Donāt mean to make light of that fact. Just pointing out that itās not freakishly high.
I studied at Bangor too! I was in the School of Agriculture and Forest Science on Deiniol Road. What did you study?
So many good times in Bangor, although you end up yearning for somewhere bigger by the end of it. The university has changed a great deal now.
I once got asked the way to Caernarfon outside Bangor station by a grumpy Saffa - I advised that it was a long way to walk and he might want to get a taxi or bus and he just went āOi dunā wanna give those Besterds moi maney!ā and started stumping off with his girlfriend trailing behind. A sympathetic glance was shared.
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No.
If nobody cared, could it still be a desecration?
That depends upon the intent.
If they told me that they had removed the top piece of rock, for example so that no-one could climb as high as they had done - yes. If they had just picked it up as a memento, Iād suggest it was stupid and thoughtless (since it everyone did that, the impact may be significant) but an act of desecration requires the identification of the symbolic value and the will to defile it.
Interesting in an arseholey sort of way?
Iām sure that the matteringness of it varies widely. I suspect he feels that the Lake District Ramblers less high risk a target than other groups of people he could upset, as Iāve stated before.
Itās the highest in England.
Thatās not the point. The point is the intent of the perpetrator of the act. The way he has described it clearly broadcasts his intent.
If it was superglued down in the first place. If we responded to this the way we do terrorism, after it was replaced a barrier would be erected to prevent future incidents.
Iām not sure pissing on it would helpā¦
Mountains are not galleries - see Walter Benjamin.
I studied Electronic Engineering for two years, until imaginary numbers broke my brain.
I changed to Computer Systems & Business Studies, which was a lot more āup my streetā.
I donāt know about yearning for somewhere bigger, unless youāre used to city life. I absolutely love Bangor, and the surrounding area. Not that many places have such a beautiful landscape, are so close to the sea, yet so close to proper mountains - and have a population density such that you travel for 5 minutes by road in any direction and you can always find a quiet spotā¦
Iāve walked that route a fair few times before - no matter how drunk and confident you are when you set off, youāll be sober and regretting the idea by halfway! I lived just outside of Penygroes (about the same distance from Bangor > Caernarfon, but the other side of Cāfon, I (and most of my mates) have done that walk once or twice in the early hours of Saturday morning tooā¦
As a small anecdote - I know a person who did Agriculture and Forest Science while I was there too. His name is Robin Hood. He came from Nottingham. I shit ye not.
I know Robin - he was in my year! I believe he came from a long line of Robin Hoods. Did you study Computer Systems with Ger Jones, perchance?
Crikey! Itās a small internet, innit?
If you know Robin, then thereās a chance you may know (or at least be acquainted with) meā¦
Geraint Jones, Welshman with a pony tail. Robin still lives in Bangor, on the seafront near the dockyard 
How funny!
I knew Robin to chat to, but not extremely well. Geraint was a pretty good friend, but I havenāt seen him in years. In fact I think heās one of the two people in my inner circle of friends in Bangor who didnāt marry a foreigner and move to London via a circuitous route.
I used to live just down that end myself, actually - just around the corner from the Tap & Spile on Upper Garth Road. The other digs I had were just beyond the railway bridge, which is apparently terra incognita according to the kids these daysā¦
