Ancient burial mounds and monuments dating back to the Bronze Age in Yorkshire's national parks (England) are at risk of being lost forever amid a surge in popularity in walking and mountain biking. National park chiefs have warned that a worrying ignorance has seen the monuments disturbed by ramblers, and there have been instances of mountain bikers using ancient burial mounds as impromptu jumps
     There are 839 scheduled monuments within the confines of the North York Moors National Park; among them are standing stones and burial mounds, and around a fifth of those within the national park have been given a high 'at risk' rating. The North York Moors National Park Authority's senior archaeological conservation officer, Graham Lee, said anyone caught damaging scheduled monuments could, in theory, face a criminal prosecution.
     One of the biggest problems is people taking stones from the ancient sites to build up piles, or cairns, nearby. There have also been cases where burial mounds near bridleways have been ridden over by mountain bikers unaware of the historical importance of the raised ground on their revised route. Mr Lee said: "We have been attempting for many years to highlight the importance of the scheduled monuments in the national park, but people are simply not aware of what they are disturbing. They are unwittingly responsible for an awful lot of damage, and the issue is proving to be an extremely hard nut to crack. We are getting more and more people into the national park who are taking up walking and mountain biking, which is obviously great news and exactly what we want to encourage. But there is an ignorance about the countryside with many of these people."
     The North York Moors National Park Authority has joined forces with English Heritage to protect the scheduled ancient monuments in the area. A management scheme to carry out vital restoration work to dozens of the monuments which began in 2009 has now been extended until 2015 after another £100,000 in funding has been secured.
     Leading walking and mountain bike organisations have stressed that every effort is being made to ensure their members are fully aware of the need to preserve the countryside and its ancient heritage. Mark McClure, chairman of the UK branch of the International Mountain Biking Association, said: "We would always urge mountain bikers to stick to the designated tracks to avoid causing any damage, especially to scheduled monuments."

Edited from Ripon Gazette (7 January 2012)