Some time ago, 2017 in fact, I created a list of one thousand ‘random points’ (RPs) scattered across Britain and the Isle of Man, a sort of antidote to all the lists of hills, mountains, trig points, etc. out there. The locations were chosen using computer-enerategd random numbers converted to geographic coordinates, applying certain modifying rules – the final RP would be the nearest publically accessible point to those coordinates, 5 km from any other RP and not in a nature reserve or otherwise sensitive area or hazardous location.
It had some issues, so I’ve decided to do it again – a new list of 1000 Random Points – and this time including Ireland and the Channel Isles, not just Britain and the Isle of Man, fully covering the British Isles (UK, Ireland, Man and the Channel Isles).
After trying to generate random geographic coordinates by multiple coin tosses, realised it would be far too time-consuming ultimately, so returned to computer-generated random numbers. Each final RP would be (1) the nearest publically accessible location to the initial RP, (2) not in an environmentally sensitive location, (3) not in a hazardous location and (4) 3 miles or more distant from any other RP. If the initial RP falls in the sea, then so long as it is within 3 miles of land the final RP will still be the nearest publically accessible location.
I did originally have a blanked ban on using RPs which fall in nature reserves, but decided this was only necessary in certain cases such as where there may be nesting grounds or particularly fragile ground conditions or vegetation.
I’m going to make serious effort, starting Monday, to actualy visit locations and will post description of each visit here … something to entertain myself and maybe one or two others. So, here goes … next post June 23rd.
JONRUS.COM 