Written on 14/04/19 by Paul Oldham

Blencathra Trig Detector Ring Returns

Last November we wrote about how the Hallsfell Top on Blencathra is, or rather was, marked by a simple concrete ring, what the Ordnance Survey call a "trig detector ring", as opposed to the usual trig point. The concrete ring was a low concrete circle about 50cm in diameter, that actually sat on top of a buried block.

You can see these trig detector rings marked on our WayMaps mapping as a blue circle with a blue dot in the middle. There's also one on Latrigg for example, just south west of the summit, although that one is hidden beneath the turf, and there are others scattered around the Lakes if you search around.

The one of Hallsfell Top sadly went missing last August. At the time the Ordnance Survey said:

This was a phosphor-bronze ring, encased in concrete and buried below surface level over a secondary trig (buried block). It could be located using a metal detector to aid the finding of the station in areas where a description alone was not enough. To hear that thieves have made off with it is very disappointing.

Like trig points these rings are no longer used by the Ordnance Survey so they had no plans to reinstate it but John Beamson raised over £1,000 via a JustGiving page to replace it with a replica and last Thursday one of our regular walk report posters, Lancashire Lad, was on Blencathra and wrote it up as Blencathra - (via Sharp Edge & Hall's Fell Ridge) on the forum. There he reports that the replacement ring is now in place.

New Blencathra Trig Detector Ring
The new trig detector ring

New Blencathra Trig Detector Ring - close up
The new trig detector ring - close up

For comparison here's a photo we took of it a few years ago.

Blencathra Trig Station

It's not quite the same: the ring is wider and it currently stands a bit more proud, but at least it's back!

First two photos copyright © 2019 Lancashire Lad.

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