Training Course in Canada

This course using mainly novices was the first run by the recently formed Dry Stone Guild of Canada under the direction of Dean McLellan. The course instructor was Andy Loudon from the UK. A very high standard was achieved.

Water Has it's Way

During the reign of Queen Victoria a road was built along the North side of Loch Muick(pronounced Mick)on her Deeside estate. A wall stretched for several miles beside the road. Some very neat drains were set in with channels across under the surface . You can see from this photo where the original stream flowed down to the drainage point. About ten years ago the water had found a new route from a spring down to the road. I was asked to divert the flow back to it's original 19th century position. I did that but within another five years the water had "decided" to revert. Finally the estate have given up the struggle and put a new drain across the road.Both the courses still show and emphasise that when dealing with H2O the liquid has a mind of its own. Sometimes as humans we learn these lessons very slowly.

Water Feature

This very attractive water feature was built by Canadian waller Eric Landman. I shall post more of Eric's fine work in this blog over the summer.

Castle Hill New Zealand

This photo of an Sacred site in New Zealand was taken by Peter Nickolls. I find it quite amazing.

Sundial at Drummond Castle

The garden at Drummond castle was set out in the form of a Saint Andrews cross in the 17th century. Although the planting was restored in Victorian times this central feature a celestial Sundial still stands in the centre. Those of you who saw the film Rob Roy would have seen the garden in all its glory.
I am grateful to Evan Oxland for the photo . He visited the grounds during his study of the great gardens of Europe.

Deserted Village

This photo shows the remains of a deserted village in The Sma Glen in the highlands of Scotland. This highland township was typical of the groups of dry stone houses in Scotland before the clearances in the 18th and 19th centuries.In much of Scotland the land was taken from the people when landowners,empowered by legislation in London, brought in sheep as an attempt to make the countryside more profitable. Now in the 21st century the Tourist trade is the most important industry in the area. Bizarrely many of these tourists are descendants of the people who were driven to emigrate.

Extreme Walling

Tracey Blackwell sent this photo of stonework above an old quarry quite close to her home in Yorkshire. One can only wonder at the skill and dedication of the folk who built this retaining wall. Apparently there is a severe fault in the rock at the top of the quarry which could have led to part of the field sliding into the space.Even now in the 21st century a repair in this situation would have presented a major problem.

Dry stone Feature in Japan

Richard Lloyd and Teruki Kamlya built this interesting double arch in front of a flower shop in the city of Gifu. Shortly after it was completed they found it damaged and suspected vandalism . However this was Japan, the next day a gentleman arrived at the flower shop admitting that he had bumped into the stones with his car. He offered to pay for a rebuild. This was done and now the arch is the talk of the town.

Visit to Victoria Australia

I did promise that I would not get involved in dry stone walling while visiting one of our sons in Australia. I did see many wonderful and unique animals including the egg laying mammal Duck Billed Platypus. Looking very relaxed was this Kangaroo. I also tried to photograph the elusive Tasmanian Devil but only caught it retreating. Despite my promise I did have to help a little bit along with son Calum. The wonderful folk we were staying with had a set of steps built with the local well named Mud stone. They found the rock was not suitable to run a wheelbarrow down as it was tending to crush the stone. We built a wheelbarrow ramp using large rocks set deep into the ground with only the flat surfaces exposed.It worked well.
I did find a few dry stone features in Australia, they will appear in a day or two. After that will be a photo of a build in Japan.

Swiss Style

Before I visited Switzerland several years ago I had the usual mis-preconceptions about that Country. I imagined that everything was as the post cards neat and ordered. I thought that the dry stone walls would all be the same strictly coursed and blocky. This set of images shows that their stonework is as varied as anywhere else. I leave you to decide what you like best. But please do not fall into my bad habit of judging without knowing.

Big problems face the wallers in my next entry 15th April