Dry Stone Walls
4 April 2024
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Abbe Harrison
Abbe Harrison, ACT’s Project Manager for three and a half years until May 2024, provides an insight into the history, craft and beauty of dry stone walls.
She takes us to her native Yorkshire, where dry stone walls form a backdrop to everyday life and are an iconic feature of the local landscape.
A dry stone wall is a traditional structure made without the use of mortar or any binding agent, relying solely on the builder’s selection and skilful arrangement of the stones. Found across the world from Iceland to Peru, in Britain they are traditionally built in rocky highland or upland areas such as Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Cumbria. The specific building technique and type of stone employed reflect the underlying geology and heritage of the area, creating regional differences in the appearance of walls (as seen in the images below).
An ancient craft form, dry stone walling has been practised for over five thousand years. In the UK, Bronze and Iron Age farmers built dry stone walls as they transitioned from a nomadic lifestyle to settled farming. Farmers made use of natural surface stones in fields (and later on, rubble from nearby quarries) to create useful barriers for safeguarding their livestock and marking out boundary lines.
The ingenuity and artistry of dry stone walling lies in making the best use of only local materials, with nothing else needed. Despite their deceptively simple appearance, there is great skill in arranging the stones in a particular pattern so that they interlock to create a stable structure that is capable of lasting hundreds of years.
In addition to their historical significance and aesthetically pleasing appearance, dry stone walls also have important ecological and conservation value. They provide a habitat for wild plants, insects and small creatures. Field mice, hedgehogs, birds and other animals nest in crevices within dry stone walls, and plants (such as mosses and ferns) favour their exterior. Sheep use dry stone walls to shelter from the elements, and the gentle draught that passes through the gaps in parts of the wall can help dry out a wet animal taking refuge behind it.
Dry stone walling takes both strength and dexterity. Building stone walls is physically demanding work: each metre of dry stone wall contains approximately 1.5 tonnes of stone (North Yorkshire has 13,000 miles of dry stone wall alone – equivalent to an incredible 31 million tons of stone in weight!) It’s also a precise handicraft, requiring a great deal of expertise to size up, balance and configure the stones in a way that creates a solid construction.
Abbe explains their charm:
“I admire these walls on every walk when I visit my family. The way they age naturally, gather moss and last for years has something beautiful about them. They play a huge part in the beautiful landscape of Yorkshire, from enclosing livestock to marking out property lines. No matter how aged and jagged in appearance, I trust the wall to hold my weight as I climb over.”
Whilst being a quintessential feature of the great British outdoors, dry stone walling can also be used in a domestic setting to add a graceful and inviting touch to a residence. Abbe explains the potential of this technique further:
“New domestic dry stone walls can look fantastic and elevate the home behind it. There is a real elegance to creating a smooth curve with these walls in the traditional way. They make a unique addition to the entrance of a driveway, and in being hand-made, can be customised by embedding a stone piece in the wall bearing the property’s name and adding a mortared oval top for finesse”
[Photo credits: With thanks to Thomas Guignard (via Flickr), Mike Erskine (via Unsplash) and Abbe Harrison]
