Castle in the Rocks

This Slovenian amazing castle in the rocks, was occupied for many years by a brigand who seemed to be unassailable. Although under siege for over a year he had 13 kilometers of passages to retreat into and also access to open country for fresh food unknown to the attackers. He was finally killed when one of his men betrayed him . He went each morning at the same time to his toilet in an overhang and he was caught in the act by well directed cannon fire!

The next entry explains the problem of drinking water in a limestone area. 20:06:11

North American Repair

This fine example of Deeside walling was substantially done by a group of wallers from Canada and the USA who were visiting the Royal estate at Balmoral. You can see what they were faced with when they arrived on site.
The entry on 16th June tells the story of an unusual Castle in Slovenia.

Walling in Slovenia

One feature of the dry walls in the Kras region was that there was almost no batter. For those of us brought up in the British tradition this is quite unusual but not unique. In Yorkshire I have seen  two metre high walls built by monks in the 15th century which had no batter. It would seem that the apparent requirment for the slope depends on the purpose of the wall. When there are no animals attempting to climb over there seems to be no need for batter.
The next post shows work done on the Balmoral estate by Canadian wallers.

The Smiling Hiska

I was involved in the almost total rebuild of this 100 year old shepherds hut. After the completion one of the builders Jelena inscribed our names on a rock close to the entrance. Sadly she left out her own despite making a major contribution to the work. All the huts had a name and  this one was called the Smiling Hiska.