The Brochs of Scotland

Around the end of the iron age approximately 750 dry stone Brochs were constructed in Scotlland mainly on the islands and round the coasts where suitable flat rock was available. These buildings have been mostly robbed of stone but the best remaining example is Mousa Broch in Shetland which still stands just over 13 metres high. It is now thought that they were grand homes for chiefs and other important members of the Celtic society. There is generally a single entrance with a guard chamber. This led to spiralling stairs built between the two supporting walls. It is thought that the central area had wooden ceilings perhaps at more than one level though the top appears to have been left open. The photos here are of the full height Mousa Broch and one of the Glen Elg Brochs which show the gaps on the stairway which allowed light into the steps. The Brochs are a uniquely Scottish phenomenon ; that is how they are described by master craftsman Irwin Campbell who is currently organising the construction of one for the first time in two thousand years on the outskirts of the village of Strathyre.

Canadian Planning

"Dry stone walling meshes well with modern technology. Here is a design of a church ruins first visualized in a program called Sketchup, which help luddites like me stretch and push shapes into place digitally and so be able to visually imagine what a wall here and a wall there will look like , and then as dry stone wallers we get to go out to try to build what it is we have produced on the computer screen. What is interesting is how close we got with the realization of the original digital graphic design. And the whole thing materialized in such a short time from design to finish so that there is a momentum and excitement about designing the next new project. This dry stone ruins church took 7 men two weeks to build. It is going to be a back drop for the wedding celebration on the property in June. Now the gardeners move in and make the thing beautiful with flowering living growing things. I hope they have as much fun as we had building the stone part."
John Shaw-Rimmington

Setting The Last Rock

One of the delights of dry stone walling for me is the celebrations at the completion of the work. Normally after a interesting project we have a get together of all those involved in the organising and construction of the job. Often there will be food, drink and music in addition to a ceremony which I enjoy where each person present signs their name and writes a message to whoever finds the bottle which we place somewhere in the wall along with coins or some other artifact which may be found 100 years later. The bottle of course has to be emptied before the placing. The wording varies enormously from good wishes to the finder or even a demand to repair the wall if they have broken it down.

The photos shown here are from a wonderful evening in Rossiniere in Switzerland when the final rock was lowered into place amid much rejoicing about repairing mountain paths in the high Alps.