Ireland & walls

On Sherkin Island, just off the coast of Cork in SW Ireland you can find some of the most unusual dry stone walls anywhere.

The specimen on the left is a 'single' wall and is quite common on the island. These are about 3.5ft high.







I'd been on Sherkin several times and never seen this one, until one day on the ferry to birdwatch on Cape Clear island the weather forced the ferryman to take us via the steep eastern side of the island. My eye attracted to a wall on the distant hillside I decided a closer look was in order.

The dog, by the way, is mine and she's Jilly a border collie X retriever.








And so several weeks passed before I had the opportunity. The wall runs for just a couple of hundred yards along the top of steep cliffs. It was built to keep cattle from straying over the cliffs.

So far as I'm aware these are the only pictures in existence of this rather unusually built wall, which still functions to keep cattle out of harms way.

 Excellent modern walling just outside Drimoleague in Co. Cork

The Cheek of some people

I was asked by a Park Ranger I know well, if I minded him giving someone my details as "They knew someone from a local college who wanted someone to do a bit of a demonstration to some students".

This was no problem and a little later I got a 'phone call from a horticultural lecturer who told me what they wanted - unfortunately there was no budget for the demo. Not a real problem as it was only a few miles down the road and it would hopefully give me some publicity. Helpfully the lecturer said that they'd be doing the 'cutting back' in the morning and could I come in the afternoon. Ever helpful I explained that I'd come in the morning as people who are inexperienced often cut good layers out.

I was told that this was not necessary as the owner of the hedge had asked this group to do it anyway as he was going to lay the rest of the hedge himself.

"Why isn't he doing the demonstration then?", I asked.

I was told, "Well, he's another college lecturer and he's with another group and doesn't want to loose any pay by having time off".

But he expects me to give up half a day but not himself!

I can't believe it!!!!

My Walls

When I lived in Ireland, us 'Masons' as we were called often clad houses in stone as the stone was rather irregular and probably not suitable for cutting into 4" blocks like it is in Yorkshire.

This rather blank north facing wall has two windows in it which appear blocked up. There were never windows there of course - I just did this as a feature. Both windows also come at ceiling height so someone will have some puzzling to do in years to come.

The stone was from an old dismantled wall/ditch
Stone seats and wall.

This is West Cork Ireland. The seats are two slabs of liscannor limestone and the pillars for the seats are concrete blocks plastered with coloured sand/cement mixture.







A part of a retaining wall along with steps and seat














More of my walls here and here
The wall outside our house I built from waste quarry material and some bought in stone.

Spanish Drystone Walls

Like many(?) wallers I keep my eyes open when on holiday. So visiting family near Val de Morillo 60 miles north of Madrid I noticed many of these walls in the locality. Largely unworked stone but characteristically all had rather large overhanging copes, something I've not seen in the UK.

Here is another example, this time of a retaining wall near a disused medieval water mill. Really good walling, tight joints, and alternate corner stones.

The principles of good building are universal.









This wall is the boundary wall between Madrid & Avila in central Spain and runs for many miles over the mountains.  Incidentally the young man is my Spanish grandson and is not a bad waller himself.  He's even been known to do a bit of hedgelaying.  Unique I'd say.

 Well, they certainly can build them big in Spain.  These are the town walls in the Avila a town immediately west of Madrid.

Outside Madrid - a single wall built out of granite

Add caption

A wall built from granite just outside Madrid

(Below)

Single wall a mile or two south of Valde Morillo central spain.

Park Wall - An Historic Wall

This old wall was once part of Fyling Deer Park in Fylingdales, North Yorkshire. In the 12th century the park was created by the Abbot of Whitby, but by 1577 had ceased to exist.

Every fifty feet or so, stones are arranged within the wall to form a cross visible of both sides.

Incidently this wall is now owned by a distant cousin of mine!

Hedgelaying regrowth six months later

After one year's growth a new hedge looks like this.

Here's the same hedge at the top of the page after at the end of the first summer's regrowth. Quite pleased with this one.

truffers they're called here

Throughstones connect one side of the wall to the other as this picture taken from above a wall I built recently shows. The idea is that they tie together both halves of the wall and thus make the whole wall stronger. The use of 'truffers' as it is pronounced in this part of Yorkshire, near Whitby is important as most of the stone is fairly lumpy.and it is difficult to get stone to overlap from both sides.
When I lived in Ireland the use of throughstones was not always common as the stone was often irregular and/or thinner and it was a matter of course that both sides of the wall ended up with overlapping stones making the use of 'truffers' unnecessary.