
Dry Stone Walls – Principles of structurally sound construction (2018) - akakievich
https://www.masonrymagazine.com/blog/2018/11/01/dry-stone-walls-principles-of-structurally-sound-construction/
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jmkd
I picked up a wonderful concept from a teenage summer spent dry stone walling
in the Cotswolds.

When you pick up a stone from the pile, it MUST be placed on the wall. You
either have to make it fit your intended spot through rotation or another
adjustment, or you have to find another place on the wall for it. It CANNOT be
placed back on the pile. I'm sure these rules are not adhered to that widely
but they had some great benefits.

1\. You eye your intended location very well, thinking in 3D. 2\. You pick
your stone very carefully. 3\. You learn something each time the stone doesn't
fit.

Before too long this restrictive practice becomes an advantage not a
hindrance, and has many conceptual parallels with other physical and mental
tasks. It's a beautiful thing.

~~~
dsr_
This is an excellent rule for cleaning up (a room, a house, an office...):
touch any given thing once at most.

In extreme cases, it doesn't work because you don't actually know where things
are going to go, in which case a two-round approach is good: everything gets
pulled out and sorted in round one, and things go to their destinations in
round two.

~~~
degenerate
That's how I clean - pull everything out, assess, and put it all away. It's
very efficient if you have enough space, but it drives people nuts because
they see it as causing more of a mess.

~~~
war1025
My wife attempts to use this method, but usually gets distracted at peak-
messiness and things just end up worse off than they started.

~~~
bradknowles
No, you can't blame your wife for that method.

It was my method first.

She must have stolen it from me. ;)

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pier25
I'm from Mallorca, a little Mediterranean island near Barcelona, and we have a
great dry stone walls tradition there.

The people that do it are called _margers_ in the local language. They never
really disappeared, and they finally formed a guild a couple of years ago.

Here are some pictures if anyone is interested:

[https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&biw=1745&bih=906&t...](https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&biw=1745&bih=906&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=1XwwXabsFoKMtAaTzIfwDg&q=marjades+mallorca&oq=marjad+mallorca&gs_l=img.3.0.0i7i30.374334.374979..376163...0.0..0.83.444.6......0....1..gws-
wiz-img.......0i7i5i30.aCskKZN-4Hk)

[https://www.google.com/search?q=margers+mallorca&newwindow=1...](https://www.google.com/search?q=margers+mallorca&newwindow=1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj5pITD0b7jAhVK2qwKHRplBbAQ_AUIESgB&cshid=1563458771469782&biw=1745&bih=906)

~~~
kcorbitt
I lived in Palma de Mallorca for 6 months. An enchanting place - my wife and I
dream of moving back to the island someday and making a home in one of the
small, old and hauntingly beautiful towns like Alcudia or Soller.

~~~
GordonS
A 20 minute drive from Alcudia (which I visited today!) is Pollença, another
beautiful town ( _not_ the nearby Port de Pollença, mind). It also doesn't get
nearly as many tourists as Alcudia - if you get back to Mallorca, you should
definitely have a visit!

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arethuza
One of the pictures is from Skara Brae on Orkney - which is over 5000 years
old, but its not even the oldest site on Orkney which is Knap of Howar which
is ~700 years older:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knap_of_Howar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knap_of_Howar)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skara_Brae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skara_Brae)

One of the ancient sites on Orkney did have some relatively recent problem
with vandalism though:

[http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/maeshowe/maeshrunes.htm](http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/maeshowe/maeshrunes.htm)

~~~
bmsleight_
relatively recent :) Everything is relative.

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oflannabhra
In the Bluegrass region of Kentucky [0], there is a rich heritage of stone
fences, which are associated with thoroughbred horse farms, but they exist
throughout the area because of the abundance of limestone rock available. It
is one of the highest concentrations of dry rock structures in the US [1].

There is a similar organization, the Dry Stone Conservancy [2], that runs a
similar certification program and workshops, but more focused on the specific
needs of the area, including conservancy.

[0] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluegrass_region](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluegrass_region)

[1] -
[https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_cultural_history/3/](https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_cultural_history/3/)

[2] - [https://www.drystone.org](https://www.drystone.org)

~~~
jessaustin
Eh, the fences are nice and I love Lexington, but I would credit the fences
mostly to the legacy of slavery. Lots of places have limestone. Those fences
didn't build themselves. It's great that people nowadays are conserving them,
but I haven't seen many _new_ fences down there.

~~~
oflannabhra
This is actually a huge misconception and false. The majority of fences were
built by immigrant Irish stonemasons, although it is obvious that slave labor
probably played some role in this. The style of stone fence was directly
imported from Ulster & Northern Ireland, with Irish immigrants. If you'd like
to know more about the history of the fences, and more specifically, the
masons that built them, the authoritative source is "Rock Fences of Kentucky"
[0].

That's not to say that slavery does not play a role in the history of the area
(and the entire country), but much of the heritage of the stone fences has
little to do with slavery or slave labor. Post emancipation, the number of
freedmen stonemasons slowly grew and displaced Irish stonemasons.

[0] -
[https://books.google.com/books?id=UDHQjDJ677MC&pg=PA84&sourc...](https://books.google.com/books?id=UDHQjDJ677MC&pg=PA84&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false)

~~~
jessaustin
That's a great link; thanks! I've heard the slave explanation from numerous
people at various stud farms, but not everything we hear is true...

Still, southern Missouri has lots of limestone (it's "the cave state"), and
had lots of Irish and Scottish immigrants, and I can think of precisely one
"slave fence" in the whole state. If the difference wasn't limestone, and it
wasn't Irishmen, maybe it was that Kentucky had lots of rich tobacco
plantation owners, and Missouri didn't.

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YeGoblynQueenne
Famous historical and archeological sites with extensive dry stone walling:

The megalithic acropolis and vaulted tombs at Mycenae:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycenae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycenae)

The megalithic Nuraghe forts in Sardinia, also with vaulted ceilings:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuraghe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuraghe)

Osaka castle, in Japan (the base wall is made of dry stone):

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka_Castle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka_Castle)

The central buildings in Macchu Pitchu (hand-cut dry stone, called ashlar):

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu)

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goda90
>There are examples of dry stonewalls and structures that date back 5000 years
and are still standing today. Nearly anywhere in the world where stone of
suitable sizes was plentiful, walls were built.

What I'd like to know is are there any patterns to where the second is true,
but said walls haven't lasted thousands of years like the first sentence says?
Are there places where ancient stone structures could have been built, but are
no longer standing for reasons other than human interference? Perhaps they
fail to survive more in earthquake prone areas, or when there is heavy
vegetation that pushes roots through the rocks?

~~~
londons_explore
I have seen plenty of collapsed dry stone walls.

Often the reason for the collapse isn't obvious - I suspect rather than a
catastrophic event, it's more that the stones right on the top of the wall
aren't held in by interlocking and friction as well as the other stones, so
storms and animals can dislodge them. Plants growing in the top of the wall
can knock stones off too.

If plant matter gets inside the wall, pools of water can form between stones,
which then freezes and pushes stones apart and cracks them.

Do that for 2000 years, and the walls turn into a scattered line of stones in
the ground 30 feet wide.

~~~
tempguy9999
> rather than a catastrophic event

I'll give you catastrophic. Quite a few years ago me and some mates were
camping in a field at night and a lady misjudged a turn and took her car
through the dry stone wall. The car threw hefty blocks for an astonishing
distance. What was odder was that after the initial smash I could hear heavy
thuds as blocks dropped from the sky for what seemed to be up to 10 seconds.
Far, far too many seconds to be credible, but that's what I noticed at the
time.

Being dark we heard it but didn't see it happen. The full glory was revealed
next morning.

If that wall hadn't been in the way the car would have gone all over our tents
- and us.

We owe some anonymous derbyshire dry waller a lot of beer for putting it in
the way.

(The lady was uninjured if extremely shocked)

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anubistheta
In a similar vein, I like this youtube channel:
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1By4oBZiv9u8qnkcdCgdqw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1By4oBZiv9u8qnkcdCgdqw)

My favorite videos are the ones where he walks around a famous stone structure
and talks about all the craftsmanship that goes into them.

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asplake
Thought initially this was from the UK’s National Stone Centre in Wirksworth,
Derbyshire [1]. It used to be a visitor attraction - not sure if that’s still
the case [1]
[http://www.nationalstonecentre.org.uk/](http://www.nationalstonecentre.org.uk/)

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winchling
Is there an optimum somewhere between a fully-mortared wall and a drystone
wall? i.e. mortar which gives some reinforcement but also allows rain or
groundwater to run out?

~~~
DanBC
You sometimes see a drystone wall that has a mortared top. Here's one example:
[https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8862561,-2.0573352,3a,24.1...](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8862561,-2.0573352,3a,24.1y,242.19h,83.72t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s8cyXu5hSVCJuB3S4MQO32Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D8cyXu5hSVCJuB3S4MQO32Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D173.7214%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100)

Just down the road there's another, less attractive, example:
[https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.885003,-2.0568722,3a,46.6y...](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.885003,-2.0568722,3a,46.6y,104.31h,77.07t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sh8frKx8azhN7IXR6G6KZEA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)

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beat
I'm hoping to build one of these next year, along the 2' slope in my front
yard that's annoying to mow and won't grow grass the same as the rest of the
yard. It'd be cheaper and easier to do with manufactured blocks, but my spouse
and I think a dry stone wall will look far better with our 100+ year old
stucco/stone bungalow. And it'll be more engaging to build.

~~~
a2tech
Just be careful if you're putting fill behind the wall--like all retaining
walls these aren't really designed to 'hold back' anything. Their strength
comes in compression, not lateral loads. At a bare minimum make sure you put a
layer of crushed rock next to the wall, separating the dirt from the wall.
This will mitigate water and decomposing plant material from resting against
wall swelling and causing the wall to be shoved apart.

~~~
robocat
> aren't really designed to 'hold back' anything

Don't tell the Europeans that! You see them throughout the med:

[https://www.google.com/search?q=stone+terraces+majorca&prmd=...](https://www.google.com/search?q=stone+terraces+majorca&prmd=imnv&tbm=isch&sa=X)

~~~
a2tech
Those aren't designed to stop the hillside from sliding. They're there to stop
erosion and crumbling at the edge. If those hillsides want to move, those
walls will not hold them back.

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Wildgoose
A friend of mine did a practical course on building dry stone walls recently.
She was taught various building styles from different parts of the UK. There's
more than one way to pile a rock!

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SilasX
Sorry if too OT, but I wished we used stuff like this more in the US. Stick
construction is really bad at noise and vibration isolation.

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tomcam
Damn you, HN. I have enough hobbies already, plus I am old. Now I want to
build a dry stone wall somewhere.

~~~
NeedMoreTea
Not sure old counts, Churchill had brick laying as hobby into his sixties. He
wrote to Stanley Baldwin in 1927: "I have had a delightful month—building a
cottage and dictating a book. 200 bricks and 2,000 words per day." He started
with garden walls.

Have fun with your new hobby. :)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/708sxb/winston...](https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/708sxb/winston_churchill_was_a_qualified_bricklayer_who/)

~~~
tomcam
What a lovely answer. Thank you. I am in fact working on a book and a compiler
at the moment!

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dboreham
There are many dry stone (lava) structures on the Hawaiian islands.

