I have no idea how these people got their stones wedged into their walls

March 11, 2015 5:16 PM

Dry stone walls have been built since possibly as early as 5000 BC but can also be works of art.
posted by walrus (24 comments total)

The Mourne Wall is an excellent example of top class dry stone walling from where I grew up in Northern Ireland.

It's 22 miles long, about 1.5 metres high, 1 metre thick, and goes over the summits of about fifteen mountains.

This picture I took looking down from Slieve Bearnagh gives some idea of it.
posted by knapah at 5:36 PM on March 11, 2015 [8 favorites]

Here are some more interesting dry stone walls including Loch Risay Lobster Pond.
posted by unliteral at 5:40 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Upstate NY is rife with these. THANKS GLACIERS.
posted by Ferreous at 5:45 PM on March 11, 2015

While some of the more art-work like ones are lovely, this plain one is my favorite. It's got that perfectly balanced harmony of different sizes and shapes that makes a perfect stone wall.
posted by tavella at 5:50 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

One of the more interesting live-performance projects I saw in Toronto a few years ago was a collaboration between dry stone wall builders and graffiti artists. The building team would make the walls, the painters created art on the wall, and as the wall-builders ran out of stones they would go back, get the painted stones from the beginning, take them to the end and keep building the wall with them, reordered of course.
posted by transient at 5:54 PM on March 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

Andy Goldsworthy's work is shown a couple of times... there's a great documentary about him called "Rivers and Tides"... well worth watching
posted by HuronBob at 5:55 PM on March 11, 2015 [8 favorites]

I just love coming across dry stone walls around our area (in Massachusetts). They seem to be in the most off-the-trail places.
posted by xingcat at 6:00 PM on March 11, 2015

many of those were utterly amazing. Natural materials are a fantastic medium for art.

Stone walls are common here in northern New Mexico. And have been for centuries.
posted by Uncle Grumpy at 6:05 PM on March 11, 2015

On the front page of Reddit is a display from Boston Flower Shop. I go most years and the landscapers and mason do amazing things that just get taken apart after a week.

Amazing drystone display
posted by beccaj at 6:17 PM on March 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

Very cool, thanks for this!
posted by carter at 6:45 PM on March 11, 2015

Something there is that DOES love a wall. (And I love these too. "Rivers and Tides" took my breath away.)
posted by argonauta at 7:06 PM on March 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

Rivers and Tides changed my life for the better when a teacher showed it to me in high school - I can't recommend it highly enough.
posted by stinkfoot at 7:16 PM on March 11, 2015

Huh. I just finished putting together a site for a friend who does arty dry stone stuff.
posted by quinndexter at 9:34 PM on March 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

I love, love, love this one. I wonder how strong it is, though: is it backed by another wall, joined with mortar, or just free-standing? Could a determined vandal push it over?
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:39 PM on March 11, 2015

One of the more interesting live-performance projects I saw in Toronto a few years ago was a collaboration between dry stone wall builders and graffiti artists. The building team would make the walls, the painters created art on the wall, and as the wall-builders ran out of stones they would go back, get the painted stones from the beginning, take them to the end and keep building the wall with them, reordered of course.

I like the idea of that; it sounds like a purely physical take on the glitch aesthetic.
posted by acb at 4:08 AM on March 12, 2015

Harrumph. Cowans.
posted by yhbc at 5:21 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Several times in northern Mexico I saw dry stone walls going off across the most barren, desolate hills imaginable. It would have taken tremendous effort to build them (probably as part of removing rocks from fields, I would guess), and they went for miles -- you could see the walls receding over each ridgeline off into the distance.

One of the things I like about traveling to the northeast of the US (and of course the UK) is seeing the high quality stonework (along with a lot more bad stonework, of course) -- it's still a living trade there and there are people who do it well. It's virtually impossible to find good stonework in this part of the US, though once in a great while you spot something that was well done.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:58 AM on March 12, 2015

Joe in Australia, they do sometimes fall over, whether through malicious action or by accident. Here's a picture of a collapsed section of the Mourne Wall from the website of the stonemason who repaired it.
posted by knapah at 6:25 AM on March 12, 2015

Here's a picture of a collapsed section of the Mourne Wall from the website of the stonemason who repaired it.

It's interesting that this company advertises both dry and mortared traditional work, effectively combining the skill sets of cowans and stonemasons that has been rigidly separated for centuries.
posted by slkinsey at 8:11 AM on March 12, 2015

For another take on this, try this NYTimes article on stone mason Thea Alvin, who uses the dry stone walling to a good effect.
posted by eclectist at 8:40 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Dan Snow is another great dry stone artist from southern Vermont.
posted by TheCoug at 10:10 AM on March 12, 2015

Mallorca is an island of dry stone walls. Pedra seca made by Margers
Here are some dry stone walls close to a village where I used to live.
Many of the Mallorquian dry stone walls were built by Christian slaves for the Moors during the occupation at the turn of the last century.
Bancales were built to retain earth for a single olive tree and whole routes through the mountains were built in stone.
posted by adamvasco at 2:31 PM on March 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

One of my favorite rock walls is in the Owyhee Desert of Southwestern Idaho. It's a triangular shaped edifice with two rock walls about 1/2 mile long following the natural lay of a large mesa. The walls funnel the prey into a small area on the western rim surrounded by stone hides with narrow arrow notches. It was built by prehistoric people to hunt game, most likely bighorn sheep.

Riding that area on a freezing Feb day in the rain and fog, seeing bighorn lambs in Jacks Creek Canyon and finding those walls, and then looking through the arrow notches has got to be one of my favorite memories.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:17 PM on March 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

My great-uncle used to travel all over Pennsylvania repairing and adding on to dry stone fences; there were apparently so few people left who knew how to do the work that he was always in demand.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:43 AM on March 13, 2015 [1 favorite]