Scotland has an amazing number of dry stone walls, (dry stane dykes) as well as other free standing dry laid structures such as bridges, black houses and large double walled towers, called 'brochs'.
The DSWAC organized a two week tour in May of 2008 for a small group of walling enthusiasts to visit many of these interesting structures and investigate how they were made.
We traveled to see ancient stonework as well as very new installations, stopping everywhere along the tour to inspect unusual walls our guide hadn't been aware of. Starting at Hadrian's wall, where we hiked in defiance of our jet lag, along this wide, impressively massive stone defense wall, we then drove north into Scotland to stay at Bridge of Allan.
There were plenty of old stone arched bridges and other dry stone walls to get out and look at along the way.
A trip to Stirling Castle was a must, and then the next day to Loch Lochy where we were based at a hotel to do a day trip visit to see some carefully built dry stone 'black houses' on the western shores of Moidart. Later we traveled to look at two intriguing brochs before taking the tiny ferry to the Isle of Sky. Glenvegan Castle next and a stroll around the castle gardens for a "flora break."
Later on, our trip included a visit to Balmoral Castle where we met up with DSWA master craftsman Norman Haddow and got a tour of his work including the dry stone sunken rose garden which he had been commissioned to rebuild. This is the garden that inspired the 40 ton installation the DSWAC built at Canada Blooms in Toronto in 2006.
John Shaw-Rimmington was invited to give a presentation in Perth to the Central Scotland branch of the DSWA.UK. He talked about the resurgence of interest in dry stone walling in Canada, and the aesthetics of 'making a place for stone ruins' , instead of 'making a ruins of the place with concrete' .
It was a treat to meet and talk with those who appreciate and care for dry stone walls in Scotland, and to rub shoulders with some well known wallers including Jim Scott, Irwin Campbell and Nick Aitken. We have a lot to learn from our counterpart dry stone walling association members in Britain.
On our trip we saw several new examples of creative dry stone walling . One notable cluster were some creative walls at the Broxton business park near Perth.
The trip was capped off with a visit to the Scottish National Flower Show to see the DSWA stone 'moongate' built to commemorate the 40 years this British dry stone walling organization has been going.
Later Norman took us to visit the Ratho where Bruce Curtis, also a mastercraftsman with the DSWA spent 2 years building some amazing climbing walls and stonework at the world's largest climbing arena
In the same vicinity is another excellent collection of walls, this time herringbone terraces designed and built by David F Wilson, www.dfwilson.co.uk bordering a roundabout quite near to Edinburgh Airport.
All in all, the trip was a smashing success and will most likely be an important influence on those of us who wall for a living, in terms of the quality and type of walls that will be built here in Canada in the years to come.
