Friday, June 25, 2010

Names

I think everyone is agreed that the first ascentist of a problems has earned the right to name the problem. Even if sometimes the names are shit and irksome and painful to say out loud.

Boulder are often named sometimes after a problem on them or the area they are in or sometimes its something quite random - like Big Jim.

But what about areas who gets to name them? If the whole point of naming is too identify the place then there is usually a suitable name already in existance. If you think of any bouldering area in Ireland this is the case.So its usually just a matter of picking the right one.

Cloghogue/Ben's Font in Wicklow was nearly/still is an exception to this. There is a thread about this on the message board but I don't think there is any point rediscussing it.

Obviously Ayton's Cave got me thinking about this issue. What do people think about the issue in general and in specific, please post up.

9 comments:

  1. I don't think the cave has a name so aytons cave makes sense. The cave in between howth and Sutton won't work. Of a place has been given a nick name like bens font it could be recognised in italics or something.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would think that unless the area in particular already has an established name (e.g. Glendalough), it is perfectly reasonable to give the place a recognisable title. Similar to new problems, this naming would generally be done by the person that discovers the area first and then names it (e.g. Ayton's Cave).

    ReplyDelete
  3. I see its being referred to as "Howth Cave" on the message board. To flip your argument above - who gets to choose that the name of a bouldering area is not suitable and start using something else?

    ReplyDelete
  4. For the purposes of the guidebook I would respect the consensus which seems to be that Ayton Cave is the name.

    Anonymous did you forget to leave your name?

    Yes I did refer to it as Howth Cave on the message board, why? I suppose I find Ayton's Cave a bit jarring.

    To answer your question. Every individual make a decision about what they refer to a place as. If a person feels a name isn't suitable they are free to call it whatever they want. No one might know what they are talking about though. The consensus name would be the name that most people choose to use.

    I remember after 'discovering' the bouldering in Mall Hill and Glenmacnass, we sat down with a sheet 56 and looked at what named landmarks would describe it well. There was no discussion about Flanagan Valley or Michael's Clmbing Area etc. Maybe I'm just old (school).

    ReplyDelete
  5. i agree with dave, ayton's cave is a bit jarring(sorry other dave), i keep calling it howth cave

    chris rooney

    ReplyDelete
  6. I boulder at a spot in Wexford known as "Drooping Rock" on the old OS 6 inch field sheets. The name sounds shit to me so I don't tend to call it that. This kind of thing is unquantifiable, but for the purposes of practicality I'd say Ayton's Cave and Howth Cave could be used interchangeably, the latter being slightly more informative for someone who's not been there before. Naming a climbing area, or any other area after someone is hardly unprecedented (Winder's Slab for instance, or Art's Lough).

    ReplyDelete
  7. Why does it have to be one or the other why not compromise and hyphenate it eg Ayton Cave, Howth (Ben's Font, Cloghogue)
    This give the finder the opportunity to name it after his dad who told him about it and also describes where it is. the name will probably only really be at the head of the page and if it ends up that people call it Howth cave that is not Dave F.'s fault and Dave A can not feel insulted

    ReplyDelete
  8. Paris sera toujours Paris,
    Ben's Font sera toujours Ben's Font.

    ReplyDelete