However, there is so much more going on with stone, and so in this article, I wanted to demonstrate, describe and show what can be done. Today’s post is really an infomercial or an advertorial celebrating dry stone walling in some of its fantastic forms.

Many of the images below are my own work (well, I am promoting Stone Inspired); some are not. For instance, I have no shame in admitting that I have never built an arch or a bridge - mainly because I have never been asked to do one! However, other people have. I would love to do something like an arch. This is one of the reasons why I love walling as a career: the learning never stops.

The images and text below show some of the more common types of walls and some of the more interesting uses of stone.

Thanks to the John Shaw-Rimmington, Thea Alvin and Callum Gray for the use of their pics.

Free-standing walls
Free-standing boundary walls – straight or curved -  are self-supporting structures built with a classic capital A-shaped profile (wider at the base than the top). The usual dimensions for farm stock walls are 4′ 6″ or 1.2m high, although you could in theory build as high as you liked.  Long through-stones are placed at regular intervals and at about half height to provide strength.

Walls can be topped off either with a semi-circular cope (as in the image) or with turf (see curved wall below).


Cheek-ends
Cheek or gate ends are built into free-standing walls to provide a strong structure where the wall butts up against a gate post or such like. A good cheek-end should have stone courses running alternately length-ways and across the wall to give it strength.


Retaining walls
Designed to hold up earth banks, retaining walls are usually single-sided walls with one face visible.  The unseen part of the structure is built of more irregular stone to provide the retaining wall with bulk to support the bank behind.

The example here is low, curving wall to provide a pretty backdrop to the paved area.

There is theoretically no limit to the height that one could be built. The only real limitations are the stength of the stone to bear the weight of the structure, and the ability to find enough stone to build with!  One of the tallest dry stone retaining walls is at Cei Mawr in Wales which is more than 18m (62′) tall, and used to carry the Ffestiniog Railway’s slate trucks over it.


Steps
If you build a retaining wall in a garden, you generally need stairs too! The steps that I build are usually made with stone for the risers and paving slabs for the treads.  These are one of only two things that I build with mortar – the other are benches made using slabs. Unfortunately, it’s unavoidable using mortar where the stone is going to be sat on or stood on.


Curves
Why go straight when you can go curvy?  When I build, I use metal poles and a tight string-line to keep me straight.  But sometimes you’ve just got to put a nice curve in a wall.  I still use poles and strings, but how do you make a bend with a straight line? Well, you need a little bit of skill and lots of practice.  Its fun!

Notice that the wall is topped with a thick layer of turf.


Arches
This example of an arched gateway built by Callum Gray of Keltie Landscapes is a great example of a dry stone arch.  Like the bridge below, no mortar was used to build this. This is a fantastic gateway – the stone and wooden door really compliment each other.


Bridges
This is a dry stone bridge built by members of the Dry Stone Walling Association of Canada in Wellington (Prince Edward County) Ontario  2007.  Built using the same techniques applied in the arch above, this bridge has no mortar to bind it.  It’s a beautiful structure. Thanks to John Shaw-Rimmington for the use of the image.  For more info go to the DSWAC website.


And just wow!
Sometimes you just have to think out of the box…

This amazing helix design is by Vermont, USA artist Thea Alvin.  You see more of Thea’s work at myearthwork.com



A well built dry stone wall

So, lets recap.  Building dry stone walls is dead easy.  If you know how to do it properly in the first place, that is.  Doing it well is another matter entirely.  It takes practice.  Years of practice to build up your skills. The example here is of a properly built wall – straight lines, decent batter, tight copes, throughs, all joins covered etc etc.

So why is it that construction companies and main contractors continually feel that they can do they work themselves?

The images below are from a walling job that I didn’t get as the main contractor felt that my professional’s price was too much.  They said that their own guys could do it just as well.  These images of a wall which is less than 2 years old proves that you get what you pay for. Dry stone walling is a skilled profession.  And like any job worth doing, get someone who knows how to do it in order to do it properly.

Horrible cheek-end

This is the worst cheek-end that I have ever seen.  It is wrong on so many counts.  From the foundations to copes, there is nothing right with this.

Literally a pile of stones

And this is meant to be a free-standing section.  It literally is a pile of stones. How anyone could think that this was acceptable work, I don’t know.  Perhaps they felt that having a fence behind would make this look rustic?  This piece of wall joins in with an existing section of stone wall, that whilst it has seen better days, at least has some form to it. The use of stone is so poor.  Nothing is locked together and everything moves.  Horrible.

I guess this just goes to show what an amazingly adaptable material stone is…

More pictures in the Projects page.

Dry stone retaining wall Roslin Edinburgh

Usually when I build  dry stone walls for clients, further landscaping, such as laying turf, happens after I have finished my bit of the project.

So I hardly ever get to see the completed garden.

I went back to Roslin today to check on the job I did there in the Spring. The lawn has been down for several months now and is looking lush.  The walls now can be seen in there proper context in the garden.

Dry stone wall in a garden in Roslin, Edinburgh, Scotland

I’m pleased with how this one turned out.

The next scheduledd training course run by the SE Scotland branch is on the weekend of 17-18 September 2011.

For further details and contact information go to the dry stone walling association page or contact Dave Taylor, the branch secretary at drystanedave@tiscali.co.uk

This new award aims to celebrate heritage and hand-built crafts over seven materials categories including stone, wood and glass. The judging panel was TV presenter and author, Kevin McCloud, Chairman of the Heritage Crafts Association, Robin Wood, expert crafts photographer, Nick Hand, Editor of The Sunday Telegraph Life, Anne Cuthbertson and the whisky industry’s longest standing Malt Master, David Stewart

Further details of the winners are on the Balvenie web site

See the Dollar project page for more details.