Anger at Peak District cave graffiti

People thanked the team for their clean-up operation online but blasted the vandals as "mindless"

Visitors to a Peak District beauty spot left behind graffiti tags that had to be cleaned.

Paint and etchings, including two names - Shal and Noah - were left scrawled on the walls and floor of Robin's Hood Cave on Stanage Edge, near Hope Valley.

On Saturday, a team of five volunteers and Peak District National Park rangers had to visit the site to remove the damage.

The park shared the hard work of volunteers on social media in good humour, and said they all deserved "an extra flagon of Sherwood ale".

But the graffiti led to an outpouring of anger, with the vandals branded as "mindless" and "absolutely disgusting".

Names were left behind on the walls of the ancient rock formation

The park said the clean-up team deserved an "extra flagon of Sherwood ale" for sorting out Robin Hood's Cave

A Peak District National Park Authority spokesperson said: "We're delighted to see the positive response on social media to the hard work of our rangers and volunteers in helping to remove the spray paint left by a small number of visitors to Stanage Edge.

"We understand that everyone wants to have a lasting memory of the Peak District, but those memories are best kept in our minds to share with others, or in the photographs on the devices we all have in our pockets every day.

"The iconic gritstone of Stanage with its unmistakable brooding colours has been around for millennia, and we'd love it to remain like that for others to continue to enjoy."