Last Saturday we had our annual outing to the Haddington Agricultural Show. It was warm and sunny, but (as has been the case in the past) pretty windy on the exposed East Fortune site. As usual they'd provided us with a trailer load of the local red sandstone to play with, and we'd agreed that they could just leave this on the trailer for us to take as we needed. All well and good - until we tried to get the side down to unload the stone, and found that it was parked just very slightly too close to the tent. After trying to squeeze the side down (no chance) and move the tent pole (absolutely no chance) we finally managed to roll the trailer forward a few inches, and got one of the side flaps down which, once we'd removed the sides of the tent as well, worked perfectly.

They'd set up a couple of tables for us inside the tent as well, where we laid out our books and leaflets and our table-top mini walling set. The wind was blowing directly in through the opening, however, so we had to weigh everything down with hearting (and even so were sent scurrying after things following some particularly strong gusts).

We only really had enough stone to build a couple of meters of wall, and we decided only to take it up to through level for the most part, so we could show people how the wall was put together.

The mini walling kit proved popular again ...

... but not as popular as 'helping' us to build the 'big' wall. We had numerous small helpers, some of whom had remembered us from previous years. It seems we've become something of a show highlight for some budding young wallers, who were very enthusiastic about helping us complete the half-done section - some even willing to forgo watching the BMX stunt bikes in favour of doing some dyking.

I tried to tidy it up as they went along so it didn't present too much of a health hazard ...

As ever we had more people than I could count telling us how much they liked dry stone walls, along with quite a few "it's a dying art" and "how much per meter?" (check for walling bingo). And we must have done a decent job this year as I only had one old farmer asking if I wanted him to show me how it should be done (fair play to him - he'd quite correctly spotted a running joint near the top left). By about 4:30 pm it was quietening down, so we dismantled the wall and put the stone back on the trailer to go back to the farm again, ready for next year.

Thanks to John, James and Sam for coming along to help out, and to Sam for most of the photos, and a massive thank-you to the Haddington Show people for having us once again. 

Last weekend (while Stevie's trainees were working hard at Merryhill) the branch (helped by members of the local community) did some work on the walls at Burmieston farm, just to the north of Perth, which is now run as a combination of an organic smallholding and a retreat centre.
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I got a bit lost, so by the time I arrived on Saturday morning work was already underway ...

We had a pretty good turnout - eight members of the branch (including our host, Olly) and one local helper. A lot of the stone was big rounded boulders - I expect the largest of them had been cleared from the field, rather than fallen from the wall.

One thing about large stone is that once the wall starts to go up, it tends to go up pretty quickly. The farm dog helped by inspecting our work, and occasionally testing how comfortable a bed it made.

We were provided by our hosts with delicious soup for lunch, served in their old barn (now a games room for their guests). They have a very impressive old threshing machine.

After lunch we continued with the work on the wall. The rain stayed off for the most part, and the breeze kept the midges at bay.

We must have got about 10 meters of wall repaired, and were ready to put the copes on by the end of the afternoon.

Sunday was a warmer day and less windy than the day before. We had only four of the members from Saturday returning, but another couple joined us, plus a new local community helper and a 'WWOOFer' - a volunteer from Willing Workers On Organic Farms, all the way from Australia. We picked up from where we'd finished the day before, with a couple of the local chickens helping us with the digging out ...

We were again provided with lovely home-made soup for lunch, after which another couple of branch members joined us. Once again the big stone made for quick work once we'd got the collapsed wall dug out.

There was a curved corner to be negotiated, with a metal fence post in the middle of it (Olly is going to keep sheep in the enclosure, and he needs to run a wire fence along the top of the wall to make it secure). The big stone came in handy here, both for forming the corner and for supporting the post (which was almost rusted through at the bottom). 

By mid afternoon we'd got the section we'd started on pretty much completed with just the copes needing put on, so we started tackling the section past the corner as well.

I had to leave at about four o'clock, by which time we'd coped the wall as far as the corner and got the next bit up to about half way. 

A few keener (and in some cases, later-starting) folk stayed on to do a bit more, but I don't have any photos of this. So just imagine the photo above, but with a bit more of the wall done ... 

​Thanks to Oliver and Keesje for looking after us so well, and to Sam for the photos.

And here, at the request of Dr John March, is a photo of me walking along the wall. It was easily solid enough to walk along - the only issue was negotiating the overhanging trees ...

Last weekend we held another training course at Merryhill, let by Stevie Gordon. They had a great weekend, enjoyed by all.

Looks like they made a good job of the wall, too.