Update 16/10/2019: Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership have posted a video about this build - check it out at m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1853928054753078&id=871207806358446&sfnsn=mo&d=n&vh=e

Last weekend our esteemed colleagues in the South West Scotland branch (SWS DSWA) organised an inter-branch project for all the Scottish branches - the first for many years. This was a great opportunity to meet and work with other dykers, and to get some experience of different dyking styles.

The project was a wall repair at Threave Gardens, a National Trust for Scotland property near Castle Douglas in Dumfriesshire. The site was on the edge of a wood near the top of the hill behind the Gardens, with fabulous views over the surrounding countryside.

The existing wall had collapsed at this point, and the plan was to build a new curved wall providing shelter for a viewpoint with benches looking out across the valley. The area had already been cleared and stone brought up.

Different sections of the wall were going to be in different styles: some standard (double) dyking; some single boulder dyke; and some Galloway dyke - the local style, double until half way up and then single on top.
Single dyking is an art unto itself, and the granite boulders were massive, but the speed at which it went up was impressive - long before us double dykers were even half way up the first section of boulder wall was done.

Saturday was a glorious day, and it would've been almost too hot if it weren't for the breeze and the shade from the trees.

As well as the benches inside the circle, a couple of large flat stones were to be built into the wall to act as seats. These were too big to lift by hand, and were lifted in by tractor.

As the day wore on our double dyke gradually caught up with the single one next door.

SWS DSWA had set up a field kitchen nearby, and provided us with a fantastic lunch (including quite possibly the best rice pudding I've ever eaten).

Very foolishly, I didn't take any photos at the end of the day, thinking that the wall would still be the same the next morning and I could just take some then. The next morning the wall was the same - but the weather wasn't. It started to rain just as I went to breakfast at 7:30 am, and continued steadily for the rest of the morning.

Not that we let this put us off, of course.

The section next to the 'top' stone seat was Galloway dyke, and as for the boulder dykes the single section went up very quickly.

We knocked off late on Sunday afternoon with nearly all of the wall completed - just one section of standard wall joining on to the existing wall was left to do.

Thanks to Nic Coombey and all at SWS DSWA and to Dave at Threave Gardens for organising this, to Karl for the photos (his ones are the better ones, especially on Sunday when my phone got very damp and blurry), to Linda for the superlative catering, and of course to the many dykers from around the country who made this possible.

Over the two days of last weekend we built a curved dry stone seat at Colinton in the south of Edinburgh, on the section of the Water of Leith walkway that runs along the old railway line. This is part of a larger project to enhance this area, which also includes some pretty spectacular murals in the tunnel that's there.

The project's being run by the Colinton Amenity Association (CAA), and they'd prepared the site before we arrived on Saturday morning, cutting a flat area out of the banking near the tunnel.

The stone was from the Swinton quarry, just north of the Tweed (the specification being that it had to be Scottish), onto a large piece of which one of our former members, Pete Smith, had carved an inscription for us notifying who'd built the seat and when.

It was quite tricky working in the fairly enclosed space within the curve, and the bank above was quite muddy and slippery too, which didn't make it any easier. The stone, however, was pretty easy to work with, and there were several large flat slabs which would do well for the seat area.

By lunch time we were up to seat level - the slabs having to be mortared on to ensure that they stay put.

The CAA even provided us with cake to keep us going.

And fortified by this we soon got the seating slabs finished off.

The back of the seat would need to be built on top of the slabs and we therefore had to let the mortar set before we could build it, so all we could do for the rest of that day was build up the lower parts of the back wall to seat height.

We reckoned Sam was light enough not to cause the seat to shift, so he tested the seat for us before we headed off at about 3 pm.

On Sunday, the mortar having dried, the back could go  up  - a tricky curved build with a sloping top.

And finally the completed seat, with the inscribed stone in the middle of the back.

And proof, if any were needed, that it works.