Articles

2023 – Building dry stone bridges and going Japanese

2023 has been a year of big dry stone walling jobs and feeling the impact on my daily commute after moving to Fife. I’ve also had the opportunity to push myself building some interesting projects. New House – new location, different commute! January’s big event was moving to Kennoway in... Read More

The Dry Stone walling bucket list

When I first started dry stone walling many moons ago, I was happy to just be out there on the hill farms repairing walls.  It was such a relief to be doing something I enjoyed after years trying and failing to find a career in the world of desk jockeys. ... Read More

Stone Inspired in the Movies

In 2017 I was asked to organise the building of various pieces of stonework for the Netflix film about Robert the Bruce, “Outlaw King”. This big budget biopic was meant to be a multi-part production of the life of the famous Scottish medieval King. In the end only this movie... Read More

The art of forensic dry stone walling on St Kilda

St Kilda Euan Thompson (aka the stone dyker)  and I spent 10 days on St Kilda this July working with the National Trust for Scotland on several dry stone walling and stone structure repairs. St Kilda is a small archipelago about 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides. The main... Read More

2021 – dry stone walling and landscaping review

It’s been another interesting year of dry stone walling and garden landscaping projects for me.  I’ve had some lovely projects, worked with some excellent clients and most of the jobs taught me something new. Every day is a school day as they say. The year started with lots of projects... Read More

Body of work – 16 years of dry stone walls

Last week my LinkedIn account told me it had been 16 years since I started working as professional building dry stone walls. It got me thinking about how many jobs I’ve done in that time. I’ve put together a list of the locations, descriptions and some images of stonework I’ve... Read More

The joys of working in winter

I’m often asked what I do in the winter. The answer is I work building dry stone walls. Like I do the rest of the year. Working outside, particulary during the pandemic has been a real luxury. Whilst millions are forced to work from home, I get to leave the... Read More