We returned to Wooplaw on the first weekend of July (see previous post) to complete the work we started last month, and to address another bit of collapsed wall. There were five of us there, so we split into two groups: the first group went to finish the work we'd started the month before, while the rest of us tackled another collapsed section where there had been a large tree near the wall which had come down in a storm - apparently, even before it came down, you could see the wall being moved by its roots in strong winds ...

As with a lot of the walls at Wooplaw (and indeed, a lot of old walls everywhere) you just have to take a call as to how much you're going to take down and rebuild, as pretty much the whole wall could do with some attention. We decided on a section about four or five meters long, where the wall downhill at least was in pretty good nick, giving us a decent starting point. It looked like the stone had been coming off for some time: on one side there was a path, which was fairly clear, but on the other side there was a lot of stone, some of it buried quite deeply. There was also a ditch covered by undergrowth, which though thick enough to obscure the ditch completely wasn't strong enough to support the weight of someone stepping on it, as I can personally attest. The advantage of this experience was that at least it made me cautious about taking stone off on this side - I think we only lost one stone submerged in the ditch (though my guess would be that there was plenty more in there, including quite a few of the copes).

After lunch the first section was complete. A couple of us had to leave, but the rest of us worked on on the other section, and by mid afternoon when the rain started in earnest we'd got it up just about to sub-cope height. 

Last weekend we held our annual dry stone walling demonstration at the Haddington Agricultural Show. Unusually, this year the pile of stone had been put inside the tent ...

In some ways this was an advantage (when we arrived it was raining, and in the past we've had some fun at agricultural shows chasing after our leaflets as they blew off in the wind) but in others it wasn't so good (the rain cleared up pretty quickly, and the fact that we were indoors meant we were less visible to the public). We thought about moving the stone outside, but it had been put well back in the tent, so we decided to build the wall just inside the tent entrance.

The stone was a bit easier to work with than previous years' - red sandstone mostly, quite soft and easy to work.

As usual, we had some 'junior' helpers ...

And the final product (additional 'mini copes' added by our enthusiastic youngsters).

Thanks to Sam and Gail for the photos!