This is something which may be of little consequence but I feel must be brought to attention.

Yesterday on return from Bridlington, I decided to stop by the monolith at Rudston for "a little consultation". Unfortunately my original intention was a little distracted upon noticing the number of coins pushed into every available crevice on the four faces of the stone.

Now I'm all for a little money magic, and I appreciate the gestures that leaving token offerings may procure, however I do draw the line at potential destruction of a standing stone, by the lack of understanding that a cold coin wedged into a stone crevice, through different expansive properties between the stone and metal can actually cause damage through flaking off small stone chips.

Also when I visit such ancient monuments I like to touch the stone, feel the holes and natural weathering that has occured over hundreds of years and not find my fingers impeded by embedded manmade metal disks of low denomination.

All coins were removed from the stone, and I make no apologies for doing so.

The higher (20p and 10p) denominations were planted in the ground, the copper coins were scattered at the base under the grass - none of these actions I consider detrimental to any original intent for their placement.

The empty alumininium 'Relentless' can that was covered in overgrown grass behind the descriptive plaque was disposed of responsibly!

Please do not stick coins into standing stones, in fact don't stick them into trees either ... least the benefit of the intent be negated by the damage they might cause.

Totally ignorant fluff ridden prats that do this sort of thing should have extra holes drilled in their sorry carcasses and their "offerings" inserted therein. WITHOUT benefit of anaesthesia.

I'd do similar to the ones who tie rags and all sorts onto living trees too.

But what about throwinh offerings into wells/rivers etc? It's something the Kwakiutle had down to a fine art in their potlatches - any views on this variant?

money in wells, good way for council or other body to make a little cash for the coffee machine.
One thing that always puzzled me about this habit of candles in burial chambers and coins and plants in crevices is that, surely in the iron age or whatever, if you were going to make an offering of coin it would have been a valuable coin. not a 20p piece or a bunch of daises. Where do these people get their ideas from?
I remove coins too EB and like you bury them in the grass. Got slapped by a glastonbury café owner at avebury for doing this though and she told me not to meddle in things i didn'' t understand.

Fuck em

Well Woozle, consider it a compliment that you "don't understand" (coff, splutter, guffaw) the machinations of the terminally misled!

Ooh nice topic! I appreciate the rant but I find the whole thing of offerings very intriguing. Often when I go to stone circles (I'm near Derbyshire so shed loads), even small ones, there are coins left or bunches of flowers. Now I guess we don't really know what these circles were for so people may be leaving offerings at the site of what was the local village hall or just a really big clock. But they clearly mean something to people and as an example of vernacular culture in a society which is on the surface very secular raise some interesting questions about 'folk' religion. It's when things get damaged that I'm not too happy. But on the whole it's a phenomenon which deserves some attention. After all, it may not be fluffy pagans - and I don't like the term fluffy, just can't think of a better one! It could be hikers or locals who feel a connection to the place.
Any other thoughts? I'd like to hear them

In Cornwall there are hundreds of Ancient Sites, most of these have offerings left at them, the Holy Wells have Clouties (bits of cloth) hung from a special tree nearby, flowers, crystals, statues, pendants and coins etc etc are often left at these sites too.
This is how it should be in my book!
I know many of the Pagan who do such things, most of them are far from Fluffy! Several are well known and respected Pagan writters!
However in Cornwall, these 'Offerings' are respectfully and carefully cleared away each year during Site Clearances, by a group of Pagan Volunteers, who also cut back the overgrowth and collect litter.
It is true the best known and easiest to reach sites are usually the worst and also suffer from 'ignorant' fools tying crisp packets, etc to the Clouty Tree, these are cleared by most local Pagans throughout the year, when they visit these sites! The lesser known sites generally have less Offerings, but of a higher quality!
This is how it should be, with Offerings prepared in advance and used in small heartfelt personal Rituals.
Many of these Sites also have quite active Spirits of Place and Guardians, I feel in no small part thanks to the attention they receive.
This does not include wedging things into cracks and holes that could damage the stone itself or chipping bits off, etc.

The decoration of a sacred tree or a bush is not intrinsically harmful to the greenery, and often marks the presence of a sacred spring or well, a practice later formally adopted and Christianised through the practice of well dressing.

Although over time any area may well become an eyesore, especially if the materials tied are either garishly showy or non-biodegradable (the tree can eventually shed a biodegradable item itself - associated magic with ribbons not occuring with the tying, but only once the item has rotten and dropped off) and that is when, as has been suggested a tidy up may be required.

Another thing that often bamboozles me are the bunches of flowers found left behind, I have no problem with the flowers themselves ... but still wrapped and bound with plastic I can but only hope that the habit of the roadside shrine does not find adoption in these practices; the last thing I need to see when walking through woods is a teddy bear zip-tied to a tree.

We had a thread about Holy Wells a while back, where we had the same disagreement over cloth tied to trees and bushes. I tried in vain to find a picture to post. They can look absolutely wonderful - magical, in fact. I have absolutely no objection to it, and have to say I'm all in favour.

One time when I was at Avebury, I found little rolls of paper poking out of small holes in the standing stones. I collected about a dozen of these, in various stages of decomposition. They were verses from the Bible. I can't imagine what the person who posted them was trying to achieve.

And you often see quartz points stuck in the ground among the stones. If you're ever short of cash and want a quartz point, you'll find plenty at Avebury.

In the UK throwing coins and votive offerings into wells, springs and rivers is a long-standing tradition and deeply embedded in the local psyche. Offerings to Melusine. There was a TV show a while back about some Africans who came to the UK to participate in a Museum display of ethnicity. One of them remarked that to make a fortune in Britain, all you needed to do was dig a hole and fill it with water, and people would come and throw money in it.

That happens up here but to a lesser extend.

Most of the time its not as bad, wax over the stones (which harms the lichens on the stones which annoys me). What did annoy me is in a Souterrain (aka Earth house) some selfish idiots left loads of tea-lights behind going rusty.

I don't care what rituals you do to enrich your spiritual life, but don't leave a mess of the area by abandoning what is essentially rubbish behind, its not that hard to retrieve them afterwards. I have such a low opinion of those people, their opinions of the rest of the people visiting the site are virtually nil and says volumes about them and their respect for the site, none of it good.

I like Naturemum's bit about the development of "folk" religion, or practices. People feeling in some way connected to a site, even if they're not quite sure why. This is how faiths and ideas evolve, I suppose.

The practice of tying things to trees (clooties) is apparently a relatively recent phenomenon, and sorry, but I personally dislike it just as much as I dislike the leaving of offerings at sites. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut.......

Who are we to say who should/n't display their feeling materially?
At times I pour a libation and leave an edible offering at certain places.

Cornish - what happens to the offerings that have been cleared away? I'm intrigued!

I beleive they are sorted into various types, the rubbish is bined, other things are usually buried in someones garden! Returned to the Earth is the idea behind it, though some things are burnt, large quantities of cloth, so they break down a bit quicker, Ive heard of clay stautes being placed in river or the sea, so they can dissolve.
There are several groups that do this, some are Pagan, some are Christian (couldnt tell you what they do with the stuff).

Now you have got me REALLY intrigued SS!
Why, I wonder, would Christians be concerned with removing offerings from Pagan sites? Do they deal with them in a similar and eminently reasonable manner? Or are they given some sort of Christian blessing?
(In the same way some archeological remains have been given a Christian burial.)

Sorry, perhaps I should have explained better!
In general the christians dont go near the Purely Pagan Sites, Stone Circles, etc.
But they do often clear the Christian Related Holy Wells, Madron and Sancreed are good examples of this, but thankfully they only go to the ones with the ruins of Celtic Chapels, so many are left to the Pagans to deal with!
As the Holy Wells, pre date the Celtic Church and their Chapels, at these sites there is a bit of a mixture of interests!

Sez who? Based on what evidence? I take issue with that. It's been happening in Tibet and points east for Millenia. I think it's been happening in Ireland since re-Christian times, too. It's one of those basic common human activities.

Well, this has a well attested history going back millennia. But what they sacrificed to the waters was usually something of great value to the individual - in some cases the sword, or whatever it was, was specially made for the purpose as it showed no signs of usage. Of course, the odd person would be sacrificed as well! As long as one is responsible about what was being offered then I can't see a problem with it.

Thanks CS - that's told me all I need to know!

And Wulfric - PERSACKLY!

The most "appreciated" offering I have ever left behind after a ritual, was 5 kilos of spinach leaf - left overnight in woods, the following day it was completely gone

yeah, we clear up spinach leaves too!

I must admit that for myself I find clooties, or whatever they are called, untidy and I find that they spoil a place - and this is just my own feeling obviously. I can understand why people do it but it's not for me. I'd rather find a place unspoilt and natural rather than cluttered with bits and bobs hanging from branches.

We have left offerings at places before - sometimes money, sometimes something else, but we don't wedge them in cracks.