Learning how to pile up stones on one another must be one of the first building skills humans developed - at least once they stopped moving around all the time doing the hunter-gatherer thing and wanted to stay in the same place for a while.
The trick to a dry stone wall (i.e. no mortar) is keeping it stable. You really, really don’t want one falling over on you!
The same principles seem to have been independently arrived at and used across the world.
Anyway… I’m continuing the tradition and developing my skills at building and repairing these structures.
Here’s a little example from last week. A vehicle had backed into an earth retaining wall on the roadside and the client wanted it rebuilt.
Each wall seems to have its own complications. This one was a limited supply of stone to build with, as it was originally built quite shallow, which is partly why it seems to have collapsed fairly easily. The client had a few spare stones though and so it was possible to rebuild it a bit thicker and better packed.
Before and after shots below.
