Apparently some folks painted the colours of Dark Peak Fell Runners (aka DPFR) on to 3 trig points in the Peak District on Sunday night / Monday morning.
(If you don’t know what a trig point is read here )
The news sort of crept out on Monday morning … and then a few things happened …
DPFR said they thought it might be someone in their ranks – but they didn’t know who – and were investigating.
The internet collectively shat itself that some trig points had been painted on.
Social media launched a ‘who dunnit’ in which peoples emotional attachment to these defunct theodolite holders varied from ‘get a life’ to ‘this is literally the end of the world’. And everything in between.
So who was it ?
And who actually cares ?
If it was a rogue couple of peeps from DPFR then that was a bit ‘daft’ because it could potentially end up with them being refused access to some land for their races. The severity of possible repercussions might explain the energy with which DPFR deployed runners armed with white paint to the trig points asap to paint the trigs. (Still not as fast as Kenny Stuart descending Skiddaw. But then again nothing ever will be).
Nothing to see here. Panic over. Move the conversational bus along.
A few other theories emerged of who else it might have been to throw shade on to DPFR. The buggers muddle of land ownership in the Peak District lends itself to a complicated and controversial jigsaw of access which in some areas says, for example, that only walkers can have access and cyclists don’t.
Rangers on the Eastern Moors part of the Peak regularly have this access debate with different recreational groups. Is there a chance that someone not in DPFR bothered their arse to ascend three hills with three colours of paint to cast shade on to DPFR ? Personally i doubt it but i guess there’s always a chance.
What actually surprises me is the apathy with which many other massively damaging projects to the National Park go ignored but daub a bit of paint on some trig points and you can see the glow off social media from space!!! I can probably count the number of people that were pissed off with the intention of Severn Trent Water to desecrate (aka submerge) the Upper Derwent Valley to create a fourth reservoir on less fingers than there are on ten hands. Peak Cluster … what even is that 🤷♂️. A 22km tunnel under the Dark Peak …. not fussed me mate …
Perhaps this disproportionate fondness for trig points is because they have a hard earnt place in the experiential base of all of us that learnt our way on the hills in the pre-GPS days. However they’re now defunct relics. Many other ‘old’ things in the hills have been disassembled and moved away.
A petition has been running since May 2026 seeking to give trig points Protected Status. The petition closes on Nov 19th 2026. With a week to go it is a very long way short of the 10000 signatures required to afford the subject the possibility of being a discussion in Parliament.
Separately, earlier this year, the Twentieth Century Society (C20) launched a campaign to afford protected legal status to the first and last trig points used by the Ordnance Survey during the epic mapping of the UK which commenced in 1936.
The first was built 90 years ago in Cold Ashby, Northamptonshire (SP 64422 76588). The final observation was taken on 4 June 1962 at Thorny Gale in Cumbria (NY 82516 13912).
An application to Historic England for both to be protected under Grade II-listed status has been made.
In conclusion to its application, C20 said: “These modest obelisks of modernity in the countryside are remnants from a nationwide surveying project of unprecedented scale. We urge Historic England to award this gem its deserved place on the national heritage list for England.”
I’m sure by the end of the week everyone will have forgotten about ‘trig point gate’ and the very short attention span of everyone will have moved on to something else. If it was a ‘couple of young ‘uns being daft’ then perhaps they’ll learn from the act. Hopefully DPFR won’t get a kicking. If it was another body of folks getting their Peak kicks another way then fuelling futher division and polarisation will do nothing for the cause of responsible access.
Oh, and whilst i’m here stirring the pot, why paint them white ? why not have a competition to allow folks to decorate their local trig (using Natural England approved paints obviously!!) to represent events or nature or folklore or local characters …. for a year at a time ?
