Swanston stone bench completed

On the 10th of August (sorry about the lateness of this post), the SES DSWA once again visited Swanston in the Pentland Hills park, to complete the dry stone bench which we'd been building with the Friends of the Pentlands voluntary group. Three DSWA turned up (Richard, Margaret and Donald), and five FotP (Hamish, Dennis, Fiona, Jack and Phil). One of the nice things about working at Swanston (and there are many) is that the golf club at the bottom of the hill is happy to open it's clubhouse to all comers, including dykers. So we met up there first for coffee (and, in some cases, cakes) before heading up to the site. It wasn't a particularly sunny day but it wasn't too cold, and as we headed up through the historic village of Swanston to the site the rain seemed to be intending to hold off. The location is fantastic, with views out over Edinburgh to the Forth and the North Sea beyond.
Sadly, since the last visit, the seat had become somewhat de-constructed - some of the stones had been knocked off the walls, a fire had been lit in the middle, and the cut slabs for the seating which Dave and Richard had previously arranged in order had been strewn randomly about.

The main structure, however, was still mostly intact and it looked like all the pieces were still there, so under Richard's instruction we set about sorting it out - numbering the slabs so that we could easily put them back on once we'd rebuilt the wall.

We'd brought most of the tools we needed and the FotP had provided us with a wheelbarrow and some sacks of ready-mixed mortar to fix the slabs in place, which they had hidden in the nearby bushes, but Richard discovered that he'd left his spirit level at home, and no-one else had thought to bring one. However, all was not lost, as Phil nobly offered to go back down and fetch one from the FotP lockup. So, while he slogged back down the hill, the rest of us got on with building the seat. The ends of the seat back had been knocked down and needed rebuilt, and the wall below the seating slabs needed brought up to a level finish. Also, the back needed brought up to a reasonable height all round, and bedded back in to the hillside.

For the most part the day stayed dry, with only one fairly heavy shower sending us scurrying for our raincoats. Once the seat base was in place, we could start putting the numbered slabs back in, mortaring them in to prevent their wandering off again.

With the seat in and the back built up it only remained to put the turf cope on the wall. Some turfs had been cut on a previous visit, but it had been so dry that they'd become completely dessicated, so Hamish and Jack set to work cutting more.

And with the addition of a couple of muckle great stanes as bookends, by the end of the afternoon it was done.

A perfect spot for weary hillwalkers (or dykers) to rest.