Earlier this month we had planned to go back with the Friends of the Pentlands to the Donald Graham memorial seat at Swanston (see posts passim), to mortar in the seating area and the cope. However, when the day arrived, it was chucking it down - not good weather for mortaring. So we abandoned this plan, and decided to re-cope the original Swanston seat further up the hill, where the original turn cope had been destroyed by hungry cattle (also see posts passim).
We passed the 'new' seat on the way up, and it was heartening to see that, despite the lack of mortar, the cope was still very much in place.
We passed the 'new' seat on the way up, and it was heartening to see that, despite the lack of mortar, the cope was still very much in place.
The 'old' seat wasn't in nearly such a good state - the turf cope had been almost completely dragged off, and the stone below had started to fall down in places, particularly at the ends.
It being decided to re-do the cope in stone (this being less appealing to cattle), the first thing to do was to collect enough cope-sized stones from the collapsed wall running below the seat.
And the wall making the back of the seat was then repaired and rebuilt where it had come down.
The stone being some what uneven, it was decided to 'pad' beneath the cope with the now-bare turfs, to provide a more stable base for the copestones.
And once this was in place, the copes were laid on top.
I like the result myself - the turf top made the seat blend in to the hillside just a bit too much. And hopefully, this time it will prove a little more resilient.
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