Dry Stone Wall With a Champion's Touch

Following on from the creation of the magnificent dry stone wall of giant boulders with the big digger we were left with a massive pile of smaller but nonetheless substantial stones to turn into a rockery or, even better, create a retaining dry-stone-wall to secure the embankment - and to look good.

The one thing this part of Yorkshire is famous for is its magnificent dry stone walls.   Many date back centuries and there they stay to this day, skilfully made in the first place.   Roadside walls though are vulnerable to impact damage so need rebuilding.  Just occasionally new ones are still made - as here.

One of the fascinating attractions of country shows around here are the dry stone walling competitions which made me wonder if our d.s.w. man Simon Morphet of High Bentham took part in them - and yes, he does.  Successfully too!  Here is Simon in action at this year's  Kilnsey Show in the summer sunshine:

Simon is the big chap with black hair in the centre of the picture.   He came second on that occasion and I congratulated him.   "Came First at Penrith" he replied.

Dry stone wallers spend a good deal of time using their eyes and brains rather than their brawn.  'You only pick up a stone once' is their motto.

Here's the steep embankment at the start of the job:

In the foreground is our heavy lift winch-truck which may come in handy.   Watching Simon so far I doubt it will be needed though.  Here he is playing with one of those huge and heavy stones at lunchtime:

Still quite a pile of stones to go at.   And this is how the wall is shaping up:

 

When finished it will be a couple of courses higher and will extend leftwards towards what will be the external stairs.  Besides being decorative it, like the wall of larger stones to the right is deliberately tilted inward towards the embankment to provide added stability.