Dry Stone Wall Building in Ireland

The dry stone wall is part and parcel of rural Ireland, particularly in the more mountainous regions of the country where rocks and stones cleared from the land were traditionally used to subdivide it into fields and paddocks, and to separate farms from the public road. 

Stone walls vary. Some are beautifully built in regular courses, with the stones all carefully interlocked to form the type of strong, sturdy wall that often lasts for centuries. Others, more usually found in the more remote areas of the west, are of stone roughly balanced upon stone, generally only one stone wide and quite precarious to climb, with the gaps between the stones showing up against the evening light like a delicate wall of lace.

The traditional skill of dry stone wall building still has a use today, not just on the farm, but also for ornamental walls in a garden or yard. For those interested in building this simple type of traditional Irish wall themselves, the combination of learning a new skill while staying in a historic Irish country house is an opportunity not to be missed.