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Dry stone
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Dry stone is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their unique construction method, which is characterized by the presence of a load-bearing facade of carefully-selected interlocking stones.
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Encyclopedia
Dry stone is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their unique construction method, which is characterized by the presence of a load-bearing facade of carefully-selected interlocking stones. Dry-stone technology is best known as wall construction, but dry stone buildings, bridges, and other structures also exist.
Dry stone walls
A dry-stone wall, also known as a dry-stone dyke, drystane dyke, dry-stone hedge, or rock fence is a wall that is constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. As with other dry stone structures, the wall is held up by the interlocking of the stones. Such walls are used both in building construction and as field boundaries.
Location and terminology
Terminology varies regionally. When used as field boundaries, dry stone structures often are known as dykes, particularly in Scotland. Dry stone walls are characteristic of upland areas of Britain and Ireland where rock outcrops naturally or large stones exist in quantity in the soil. They are especially abundant in the West of Ireland, particularly Connemara. They also may be found in the Apulia region of Italy as well as New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in the United States. Such constructions are common where large stones are plentiful (for example, in The Burren) or conditions are too harsh for hedges capable of retaining livestock to be grown as reliable field boundaries. Many thousands of miles of such walls exist, most of them centuries old.
In the United States they are common in New England and are a notable characteristic of the bluegrass region of central Kentucky, where they are usually referred to as rock fences. This type of structure is common in areas with rocky soils, such as New England, Central Kentucky, and the Napa Valley in north central California. The technique of construction was brought to America primarily by Scots-Irish immigrants.
Similar walls also are found in the Swiss-Italian border region, where they often are used to add the missing sides of natural covered spaces under large natural stones.
Dry stone wall construction was known to Bantu tribes in southeastern Africa as early at 1350 to 1500 AD. When some of the Zulu migrated west into the Waterberg region of present day South Africa, they imparted their building skills to Iron Age Bantu peoples who used dry stone walls to improve their fortifications.
In Peru in the fifteenth century AD, the Inca made use of otherwise unusable slopes by dry stone walling to create terraces. They also employed this mode of construction for free-standing walls. Their ashlar type construction in Machu Picchu uses the classic Inca architectural style of polished dry-stone walls of regular shape. The Incas were masters of this technique, in which blocks of stone are cut to fit together tightly without mortar. Many junctions are so perfect that not even a knife fits between the stones. The structures have persisted in the high earthquake region because of the flexibility of the walls and that in their double wall architecture, the two portions of the walls incline into each other.
Construction
There are several methods of constructing dry stone walls, depending on the quantity and type of stones available. Most walls are constructed from stones and boulders cleared from the fields during preparation for agriculture. The type of wall built will depend on the nature of the stones available.
A double wall is constructed by placing two rows of stones along the boundary to be walled. The rows are composed of large flattish stones. Smaller stones may be used as chocks in areas where the natural stone shape is more rounded. The walls are built up to the desired height layer by layer, and at intervals, large tie-stones are placed which span both faces of the wall. These have the effect of bonding what would otherwise be two thin walls leaning against each other, greatly increasing the strength of the wall. The final layer on the top of the wall also consists of large stones, called cap stones. As with the tie stones, the cap stones span the entire width of the wall and prevent it breaking apart. In addition to gates a wall may contain smaller purposely built gaps for the passage or control of wildlife and livestock such as sheep. The smaller holes usually no more than 8 inches in height are called 'Bolt Holes' or 'Smoots'. Larger ones may be between eighteen and 24 inches in height, these are called a 'Cripple Hole'..
Boulder walls are a type of single wall in which the wall consists primarily of large boulders, around which smaller stones are placed. Single walls work best with large, flatter stones. Ideally, the largest stones are being placed at the bottom and the whole wall tapers toward the top. Sometimes a row of capstones completes the top of a wall, with the long rectangular side of each capstone perpendicular to the wall alignment.
Another variation is the “Cornish hedge”, which is a stone-clad earth bank topped by turf, scrub, or trees and characterised by a strict inward-curved batter (the slope of the “hedge”). As with many other varieties of wall, the height is the same as the width of the base, and the top is half the base width.
Different regions have made minor modifications to the general method of construction — sometimes because of limitations of building material available, but also to create a look that is distinctive for that area. Whichever method is used to build a dry stone wall, considerable skill is required. Selection of the correct stone for every position in the wall makes an enormous difference to the lifetime of the finished product, and a skilled waller will take time making the selection.
As with many older crafts, skilled wallers, today, are few in number. With the advent of modern wire fencing, fields can be fenced with much less time and expense using wire than using stone walls; however, the initial expense of building dykes is offset by their sturdiness and consequent long, low-maintenance lifetimes. As a result of the increasing appreciation of the landscape and heritage value of dry stone walls, wallers remain in demand, as do the walls themselves.
Notable dry stone walls
Dry stone buildings
While the dry-stone technique is generally used for field enclosures, it also was used for buildings. The traditional turf-roofed Highland Black house was constructed using the double wall dry stone method. When buildings are constructed using this method, the middle of the wall is generally filled with earth or sand in order to eliminate draughts. During the Iron Age, and perhaps earlier, the technique also was used to build fortifications such as the walls of Eketorp Castle (Oland, Sweden), Maiden Castle in Yorkshire, Reeth, and the rampart of the Long Scar Dyke. Many of the dry-stone walls that exist today in Scotland can be dated to the fourteenth century or earlier when they were built to divide fields and retain livestock. Some extremely well built examples are found on the lands of Muchalls Castle.
Dry stone bridges
Since at least the Middle Ages some bridges capable of carrying horse or carriage traffic have been constructed using drystone techniques. An example of a well preserved bridge of this type is a double arched limestone bridge in Alby, Sweden on the island of Öland, (shown at right).
Dry-stone markings
In England and Switzerland, it is possible to find dry stone constructions without any obvious function. The largest and oldest of them, such as Stonehenge, are likely related to ancient pagan rituals, however, the smaller structures may be built just as signs, marking the mountain paths or boundaries of the owned land (some stand on the boundary between Italy and Switzerland, see photo). In many countries, cairns are used as road and mountain top markers.
History
Some dry-stone wall constructions in north-west Europe have been dated back to the Neolithic Age. Many Cornish hedges are believed to date from 4000 B.C., although there appears to be little dating evidence. In County Mayo, Ireland, an entire field system made from dry-stone walls, since covered in peat, have been carbon-dated to 3800 B.C. The cyclopean walls of the acropolis of Mycenae have been dated to 1350 B.C. and those of Tiryns slightly earlier. In Belize, the Mayan ruins at Lubaantun illustrate use of dry stone construction in architecture of the eighth and ninth century AD.
Gallery
See also
External links
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- , dedicated to preserving and promoting dry stone masonry
- , Group of the Swiss dry stone masons
- , Association of the professional Swiss dry stone masons
- , Drystone activity of the Swiss Foundation for Environmental Action
- Article by Adam Thompson based on anthropological field research. Omertaa, Journal for Applied Anthropology (www.xpeditions.eu)
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