Scottish Standing Stones

This is the first of a series in the blog of Standing stones. The wee bird is on the Rock at Auchingarrich near Comrie in Perthshire. Photo by Blanche Haddow. For more of her work go to http://www.bsphotographs.blogspot.com/

Gabions in a Prime Tourist Site.

Many people from around the world visit the Royal Castle of Balmoral and the Highland Games at Braemar. To get there they often drive up the famous pass in Glen Shee called The Devils Elbow. Sadly on the roadside if they look at the scenery carefully they may notice these gabions which were constructed several years ago when the road was rebuilt. This is a poor example for  Scottish Tourism in an area of wonderful Granite mountains.

Mysterious Cairns

This photo appeared on the front page of The Strathspey and Badenoch Herald. These strange cairns have been seen over the last few years, but suddenly there is an outburst of activity from the secret builder. Caused quite a stir locally in the highlands of Scotland on the banks of the river Spey near Aviemore.

Creation by Thea Alvin

This build is typical of the amazing work produced by Thea Alvin in the USA. She never seems to follow the rules that control many of us building in dry stone but WOW.

Scottish Fishing Village

I think the remarkable thing about this view is that so much of the build in the picture is made with stone. The house, the roofs, the slipway and of course the harbour itself which is out of shot. Apart from the Dutch tiles everything else comes from the local area. Our modern towns have gone a long way from that.

Unusual Wall End

I build this a few years ago and set the triangle up on end when it should really be lying down. However this a shooting estate as well as a farm. As a result a fence protects the wall from cattle who would normally do damage to a rock set like this.

Flash Flood Damage

This photo shows the effects of overgrazing when this is combined with poor maintenance and heavy rain. The ground cover has more or less been eaten away by a very high density of sheep. In addition the draining channels through the wall were not regularly cleaned out. Much of the stone from the wall was swept into the lower field.