Prof Helen Hall, NLS
Shakespeare’s Juliet famously poses the question “What’s in a name?” Despite the best efforts of the star-crossed lovers to prove otherwise, by the end of the play it is all too apparent that a great deal is wrapped up in a name. Romeo’s family name of Montague was not just a convenient and arbitrary label, it was a title that held history, relationships and expectations. The truth is that names matter, whether they are attached to people or places.
In June 2024, crowds gathered on the banks of Llyn Padarn in Gwynedd at an event to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the North Wales Quarrymen’s Union. The occasion also marked an opportunity to protest what campaigners dubbed “silly and insulting” English names being given to quarry sites, sometimes ousting the pre-existing Welsh appellation. Feelings over the issue understandably ran deep for the communities involved: matters of identity and culture were at stake, as well as ties to the landscape, and the forebears, biological and spiritual, who had inhabited it.
Quarrying had provided a livelihood for generations of people in the region, but it was unforgiving and dangerous work. In a world with little regard for health and safety, tragic industrial accidents were all too common. Many families had lost husbands, fathers, uncles or brothers, or suffered years of hardship when injury left the main breadwinner unable to work. This context, in and of itself, would explain why contemporary communities might not appreciate incomers apparently making light of their legacy. However, it is also important to bear in mind centuries of English authorities attacking, undermining and depreciating Welsh language and culture. When that is further added into the mix, an explosive response is hardly a shock.
Yet in more recent years, these same quarry sites had become significant places for other people, as they provided some of the most exciting climbing in the UK. Rock climbing also has its own distinctive community and set of traditions. Its practices have evolved over time. In the Britain, and many other places, there is a convention that the first person to climb a particular route has the privilege of naming it. The implications of this are multifaceted. In recent times, there has been some collective reflection on the colonial, racial and gendered implications of a custom that has effectively allowed a group of (predominately) white males to stake a symbolic claim on a piece of territory. However, it might legitimately be asked for whom this claim is meaningful, and in what sense. Devising and executing a route up a piece of rock does not give a climber any sort of proprietary interest in said rock, and the naming privilege is primarily significant to fellow climbers, as it has no legal status.
Many elements of the climbing community have seen themselves as countercultural, and have been associated with environmental protest, organised trespass and campaigns for public access to the countryside. The act of naming a piece of the landscape, and asserting a connection, could be seen as an act of defiance against those with economic and state power. It is an assertion that these places belong to everyone in a moral and a spiritual sense, whatever the records of the Land Registry might record. The naming tradition is, at least at a surface level, meritocratic, as it derives from practical achievement, rather than wealth, sponsorship or official backing. The people who recognise the route name in question are climbers who appreciate what has been accomplished, and have a potential interest in following the pioneer. Other citizens have no reason to care much about a pattern for clawing and wriggling their way up a cliff.
Of course, the adopted names appear in printed and internet guides, and sometimes seep from the climbing population into more general usage, hence the anger around the Welsh quarries. Furthermore, the history of climbing is not entirely rooted in radicals, romantics and anti-establishment figures. The twentieth century saw various Western states competing to summit mountains like Everest and K-2, providing expeditions with money and military support (generally for technical rather than intimidation purposes, but military support nonetheless). The colonial and geopolitical messages of these symbolic conquests were overt, and re-establishing the use of local and indigenous names for peaks has been one small part of the process of moving on.
This linguistic reclaiming was in the consciousness of both the Welsh-speaking protesters and the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) as it responded to the criticisms. The BMC expressed its commitment to promoting use of Welsh place names for mountains, and historical features of the quarries such as pits and galleries, while still embracing the newer route names. This attempt at a nuanced, middle ground reflects the reality that more than one human community can have a deep connection with a place. The nature of these relationships may be qualitatively different, and attempting to rank them in order of priority may be unhelpful. A Welsh speaking individual rooted in the location where their ancestors made a dangerous living quarrying, surrounded by its dramatic beauty and immersed in its culture, will obviously have profound ties to that place.
Yet a city-dweller who has visited that same area regularly for years to climb may also feel a strong bond, especially if they perceive their climbing not merely as exercise, but a form of self-expression. It is inevitable that such a person will talk about that place in terms that are meaningful and culturally significant to them. A response which casually invalidates their experiences, feelings and relationship with that physical space will not change their behaviour, nor will it foster understanding of the perspective and needs of the permanent local residents, understandably loyal to a culture and language that has been under constant attack since the Early Middle Ages.
Any solution to these conflicts must lie in dialogue, and an understanding that human relationships with landscape are many layered. It is at this level that law and public policy can assist. For example, the decision by the Snowdonia National Park Authority to use Yr Wyddfa and Eryri rather than Snowdon and Snowdonia was clearly highly positive. Respect and protection for the language and culture of the nation is a sine qua non for mutually affirming relationships between residents and visitors. Communities feeling that their own ties to the land of their ancestors are in jeopardy are highly likely to be protective to the point of hostility. The legal framework and state actors need to robustly defend linguistic minorities and collective heritage.
However, if this can be guaranteed, perhaps the attachment which other groups feel towards sites of natural beauty and recreation could be reframed as an opportunity, rather than a threat. Against the backdrop of a mental health and obesity crisis, a sense of connection to sites of natural beauty and recreation is something that should be fostered rather than condemned. In so far as the naming of routes reflects a social and emotional investment in that space by those who use and claim the name, it has a positive as well as a negative dimension. The law cannot realistically regulate the names and language used in climbing guides, at least not without unjustifiably infringing Article 10 and its guarantees of Freedom of Expression. It can however help to create an environment in which the language, culture and history of Welsh communities is secure enough to allow for visitors to adopt names for climbing routes, without this seeming unduly problematic. The respectful coexistence of groups with distinct ties to the same landscape should logically be a win for all.
Related Articles
Sarah-Jane Dobner “The Perfect Line: Naming and Claiming” UKC 19 June 2019 https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/the_perfect_line_naming_and_claiming-12053#:~:text=For%20the%20past%20100%2B%20years,it%20is%20just%20one%20way.
“Snowdon: Park to Use Mountain’s Welsh Name Yr Wyddfa” BBC News 15 November 2022 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63649930#:~:text=Wales'%20highest%20mountain%20will%20be,rather%20than%20Snowdon%20and%20Snowdonia.
“Climbers Saddened by Welsh Quarry Names Row But Point to ‘Important Distinction’” North Wales Live 21 June 2024 https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/climbers-saddened-welsh-quarry-names-29392696
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