I specialise in ‘domestic’ drystane, or dry stone, work. In other words, I create functional or ornamental features for gardens or estates. They may be in the town or the country. I don't undertake agricultural contracts.
Building in drystane is one of the oldest continuously practised crafts in Scotland. I try and maintain the best of that tradition by working with this wonderful natural material to create attractive, enduring features that blend as harmoniously as possible with their surroundings.
- Steps & seats
- Planting spaces
- Waterfalls & water features
- Garden walls & retaining features
- Contemplative spaces
- Therapeutic spaces
- Follies
Although I work mainly in Perthshire, I will travel throughout Scotland. There are examples of my work at Sundial House (Dunkeld), Lethendy House (Meikleour), Tophead Farm (Tullybelton), Dalreoch House (Enochdhu) and Straloch House (Straloch). I can always arrange for viewing with the owners.
In Scotland people have been building in drystane since the Iron Age. Ancient stone fortifications known as brochs still stand today, testament to the skills of our ancestors and proof that the techniques they employed still hold true. Good quality local materials, combined with proven methods of building, produce an enduring, solid and weatherproof construction. A drystane dyke will outlast a fence many times over.
Drystane features can provide a windbreak, offering shelter to animals and reducing the volume of windblown soil or leaves. They can play host to a wide variety of wildlife including insects such as beetles, woodlice, ants, bees and butterflies. They also offer a secure home for weasels, stoats, voles and shrews, and sometimes slow worms, lizards and toads.
Above all, there's a natural beauty and calm about drystane features. With a little weathering, some moss perhaps, they soon lend a sense of both age and agelessness to their surroundings.
Please email or phone me. I may well be out with my hammers, quite often in places where mobile reception is limited, but leave a message and I'll always get back to you.
Telephone: 07776 459977
Email:
‘O Lord, Thoo is like a moose in a drystane dyke — aye keekin' oot at us frae holes an' crannies, and we canna see Thee.’
Familiar Illustrations of Scottish Character (1861)
by Charles Rogers
