Review of dry stone walling projects – January to June 2014

January 2014

West Lothian – grand stair case
A winter project building a grand entrance staircase and raised bed and retaining walls. This project would go on intermittently through the first quarter of the year.

Dunbar – Dr Badger’s memorial bench
After being commissioned to build this memorial bench in the harbour area of the East Lothian town of Dunbar, I faced challenges of working in a very public place; building a tight curving seat to an exact design; and working within a very restricted budget. Oh, and the winter gales in January and February. It was very cold some days! The paving was laid by Spruce Garden Services.

February 2014

Fife – Kinghorn Wee retaining wall
A wee retaining wall for a seating area on a right of way near Burntisland. This was made with stone left over from the turf and stone bench I built at the end of 2013 for the same client.

Dr Badger’s bench completed – Dunbar
The bench was finally completed after the usual flurry of activity and long days (thank goodness for the excellent street lighting down by the harbour) in Mid-February.

Yetts o’ Muckhart training day – Clackmannanshire
I spent a day teaching some novice wallers the basics of dry stone walling in a course organised by the Ochils Landscape Partnership. With an age range of seven to seventy, and some pretty horrible stone, the group of volunteers did ok.

Yetts o’ Muckhart dry stone and wood bench – Clackmannanshire
After the course, I spent a few wet and muddy days building this dry stone and wood bench for the Ochils Landscape Partnership.

West Lothian – grand stair case continued
I was back for a couple more weeks on the big staircase project in West Lothian.

Vane Farm Spiral Viewpoint – Fife
As part of the development of a walking/cycling track around Loch Leven, I was commissioned to build two dry stone features.

The first was this spiral viewpoint, made with help from Akira Inman and Euan Thompson.

March 2014

Vane Farm entrance feature walls

The second project was building these three identical walls at the confluence of several paths. Again, Euan and Akira worked with me on this project.

April 2014

Muirhead – village signs – North Lanarkshire

Akira and I sent a week helping Callum Gray of Keltie Landscapes build these two new walls in the village of Muirhead. This was part of the preparations for the 2014 Commonwealth Games held in and around Glasgow.

West Lothian – grand stair case continued, again
By the middle of April, I was nearing the end of my time working in West Lothian on this wall.

Stow – retaining walls part 1 – Scottish Borders

April saw the first visit to this garden in the village of Stow in the Scottish Borders to build the first of two retaining walls.

Local waller Neil Moffat helped out.

May 2014

Moongate – Edinburgh
In May I started work on the Moongate job in Edinburgh. Here I’ve had the first 14 tonnes of stone delivered and moved to the garden. After clearing some space, I’ve started building. I’d be working here for a few more days!

Curved wall – Edinburgh

As the Moongate project was so large, I had to take some time out to squeeze in this wee job around the corner.

June 2014

And for the rest of the June, I worked on the moongate.