Bankrugg

This weekend six of us went to Bankrugg near Gifford in East Lothian to do some repairs to a wall which had been breached to allow access to the property some time before. The breach had been made by someone without any experience of dry stone walling, and the ends hadn't been rebuilt as proper cheek ends, and were in danger of collapse.

There was a tree right next to the wall as well, which had destabilised it further. It hadn't helped that at some point some of the copes had been mortared on as well.

We were able to clear out most of the plants next to the wall, but the tree was too big (and the owner didn't want it cut down anyway) so we just had to build around it, and bridge over the roots in the hope that this would at least give it some room to grow, though eventually the wall will need rebuilt (or perhaps removed altogether) at this point.

Fortunately there was plenty of stone as a section further along had also been taken down to allow access, including some decent long stone suitable for cheek ends.

By the end of Saturday we'd got one of the cheek ends fully rebuilt and the other up to sub-cope level, with just a couple of courses and the copes needing put on the rest of the wall.

On Sunday only two of us were able to return, but as we'd had such a productive day on Saturday they were able to complete the wall. The cheek ends had got too high, so they lowered these also.

Thanks to everyone who came along to help, to our host Aileen for looking after us so well, to Doug and Sam for the photos, and to Ardy for modelling the wall so nicely.