Dry Stone Walling Association South East Scotland Branch - Blog

Training Course 7/8 September

13/9/2024

Last weekend we had another beginners' training course, at the Scottish Lime Centre in Merryhill, Fife. The course was initially sold out, but a couple of participants had to pull out at the last minute. However, those that remained did a sterling job of rebuilding the training wall, and all feedback received has been very positive.

Thanks to Richard and Stevie for running the course, and to Stevie for the photos.

Haddington Agricultural Show

2/7/2024

Last Saturday we did our annual demonstration of dry stone walling at the Haddington Agricultural Show. There were fewer of us there than usual this year, but the quality of the stone provided had been improved, and we managed to build the usual size of demo wall (with, as ever, some help from budding junior dykers). Thanks to Sam for the photos.

We'll be doing a similar demo at the Peebles show on the 17th of August, if you missed this one!

Lilliesleaf community project

17/6/2024

Last year we had been invited to Lilliesleaf, south of Melrose, to build a section of wall containing a seat and Dave paid a visit to assess the site. A community group had got a grant from the Scottish Land Fund to buy a field in the middle of the village to save it from housing development. Preparation of the site, including landscaping, paths, vegetable garden and a children’s area, had already been undertaken. A couple of large piles of stone, one from an old dyke and the other from an old building, greeted us when we arrived on 8th June and soon members of the village community appeared to help move the stone where we needed it. Coffee, flapjacks and later on, freshly made soup and cakes in the village hall, kept us going.

The length of wall was greater than we had anticipated but we (villagers and ourselves) decided not to build a seat at this stage. Dave, Richard and John D provided the building team and the first two returned the next day. As the village committee wished to clear all the unused stone from the area in front of the growing wall by the following week, John and I agreed to return on 12th and 15th to complete the copes and left hand end which tapered into the sloping pathway to the upper level of the site. We will have to return next month to complete the other end in a similar fashion. We were made so welcome that we felt as if the project was our baby too, especially as there has been universal praise for our work.

Update from Richard, 13th July:

Dave, Stevie and I completed the end of the wall started the previous month. As before we were assisted, fed and watered by members of the village community and managed to finish early afternoon. I’m not sure if there will be any further stone structures required, such as a seat, so we’ll wait and see. As far as we can tell, the wall has met with universal praise from the residents, which is very pleasing.

Training Course 11-12 May

17/5/2024

Last weekend saw the first of this year's beginner's training courses, held at the Scottish Lime Centre in Fife. They had great weather - looks like they've done a great job, and all feedback so far has been positive. Thanks to everyone who came along and to Richard and Stevie for leading the course, and additional thanks to Stevie for the photos.

We've got two more courses this year, both in September - the first of these is fully booked, but there is still space available for the course on 28th/29th. Use the form on the Get in Touch page if you're interested in coming along!

Penicuik House

2/10/2023

Last weekend a few of our members went to Penicuik House, a few miles south of Edinburgh, to repair one of their retaining walls. I'm assured it was a good day out, and the wall repair looks good.

Thanks to Kenny for the photo!

Training Course

18/9/2023

Last weekend we ran another beginners' training course (our last of 2023), repairing a wall at Harlaw in the Pentland Hills Regional Park. The weather turned out to be less than clement, but it doesn't seem to have put off our trainees.

Thanks to Stevie Gordon for the photos!

Haddington Agricultural Show

10/7/2023

On the first of the month we were once again at the Haddington Agricultural Show to give a demonstration of dry stone walling. It was a fine day, but there was a warning of high winds later on (not that this is usually too much of a worry to a dry stone waller).

As usual they had provided us with a pile of stone - in fact, I think it was the same stone they provided us with last time. It was certainly very similar.

We had quite a few members (seven, in fact) including professionals Stevie and Rosie (t/a Lothian Dry Stone Walling), so it wasn't long before the wall began to take shape.

We had a bit of a challenge with lack of long stones to make the cheek end with, but our professionals were up to the task and made a pretty neat job of it.

And by lunchtime it was built.

This was good because it gave us lots of time to talk to passers-by, but it left us with a question of what to do with the left-over stone ... Richard suggested we build a cairn, so we gave it a go. It turned out quite a bit smaller than I'd envisaged when I put the bottom course in ... and there was still lots of stone left.

Richard decided he'd show us how a professional would do it, but before he'd got very far some aspiring young dykers joined in, make up in enthusiasm what they lacked in experience.

There was still plenty of stone left after the two cairns were built, so we filled the space in between to make a barrow.

By this point the wind had picked up and there had been a few squally showers, Stevie and Rosie had gone in search of some well-earned liquid refreshment, John had headed home as well (having partaken of some liquid refreshment the night before). and most of the punters seemed to think it was time to call it a day, so Sam and I went home leaving Dave and Richard to man the demo for the last hour or so.

I expect we'll be back next year, building with the same stone ... perhaps we should do a round wall, so we don't feel the lack of long corner/end stones so much ...

Thanks to Sam and Stevie for the photos.

Traprain wall repair

13/6/2023

Last weekend we were at Traprain in East Lothian, repairing a collapsed section of wall for Sunnyside riding stables, It's a beautiful location, with Traprain Law in the near distance. The original wall was mortared, but the mortar had long since crumbled and the wall was almost completely collapsed, with the gap being closed by pallets.
(Apologies for the poor quality of Saturday's photos ... I think my old phone has finally reached the end of its usability).

The site was quite overgrown, and it looked like the collapse had been ongoing for some time as a lot of the stone was buried on the lower side of the wall.

Once we'd got things tidied up a bit it was clear that we didn't have enough stone to complete the job: this is quite common when repairing mortared walls with dry stone work, partly because some of the volume of the wall has previously been made of mortar, and partly because mortared walls have vertical (or near-vertical) sides, whereas dry stone walls need to be wider at the base.

There was, however, a lot of stone visible in the field, so we set off to quarry some, with varying degrees of success.

After having to give up on one stone which turned out to have iceberg-like hidden portions we managed to get a few barrow-loads, which was enough to be getting on with.

By about 3pm we reckoned we'd done enough, and Richard, John and I returned home, leaving Dave at the site where, after repast at the pub in nearby East Linton, he was camping for the night.

On Sunday we returned to find Dave had survived his night in the wild. Sam also brought his 'proper' camera, so despite it being a wetter day, Sunday's photos look much less like they're under water.

John couldn't make it along on Sunday, but his place was ably filled by Rosie, so we actually had one more dyker than the previous day, and the building continued apace.

By late morning we only needed to put the copes on - the only issue being that we didn't have enough. Richard went off to find some more.

In the end we had to cheat a bit and use a couple of pairs of smaller stones, but this shouldn't greatly weaken the wall, and it looks fine.

There's another, larger gap further down the wall: it's a pleasant site and it would be nice to go back, but they'll need to find a lot more stone to make it viable.

Garvald retaining wall completed

25/4/2023

Thanks to good weather, great support from the Friends of the Pentlands (FotP) members and a good supply of building stone and hearting from Murray, the local farmer, on Sunday Dave and Richard managed to complete the wall by 3 pm. There was a useful supply of pre-cut copes available on site which made the final stage easier and quicker than expected. All that remains is for the FotP to go back on 6 May to assist with back filling and possible seeding with butterfly-friendly flowers and this wall will merge back into the landscape along with the wall we built last year.

Garvald retaining wall

23/4/2023

Last year we worked with our long-time allies, the Friends of the Pentlands (FotP) to build a section of retaining wall on the Pentland Way at Garvald, near Dolphinton in the Scottish Borders. This year we're back again to complete the next section of the wall.
I'm happy to say last year's section is still intact, and looking good:

This year we're building a similar length to the right of the above, on the other side of the access path that runs up to the walk from Garvald farm. When we arrived yesterday, the FotP had already got some stone delivered to the site, and had dug a trench where the wall was to be situated.

The first job was to move the two huge stones in the foreground in the above photo into position. The FotP had spoken to the farmer about where they wanted them, he having a fork lift to do the job, but there had been some misunderstanding so some manual labour was required to re-position them. Once this had been achieved, one team got on with building the corner

while another started half way along the wall, where there were water pipes running just below. In order to prevent the weight of a few tons of stone pressing on the pipes, a culvert was constructed in the bottom of the wall using a large flat stone.

The forecast rain stayed away for the morning, and good progress was made by both teams.

By lunchtime the teams had almost met up, and the foundation course of the wall was nearly complete.

After lunch the rain started, but it was only a few drops - almost refreshing after lifting several tons of stone into the wall. The last few stones joining the two sections were inserted, and building continued on the upper courses.

By 4 pm we were just about up to through level, and ready to knock off for the day. Some of the FotP were camping at the site, and preparations for their evening's barbecue were getting under way, while those of us who had to leave headed off.

Work is due to resume today, and next weekend if needed - hopefully I'll have some photos of the completed wall soon.