Haddington Agricultural Show

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.