While the weather has been generally mild this winter, we recently were hit by a sequence of storms, one after another. It got pretty windy at times.
The wind was so strong that it actually blew over a section of dry stone wall. This is the second time this has happened. The first time we could see that a post, next to the wall and tied to a nearby bush, might have been blown back and forth thus dislodging the stones. However, this section of wall was far from any trees or bushes. We can only surmise that it had become unstable. It is certainly an old section of wall.
Luckily, this week, we have had a few dry(ish) days. The first time this year that we’ve had more than one dry day in a row, or so it seems. Given there are sheep in this field, repairs were a bit of a priority. Not as urgent as it sounds as the field the other side is also ours. But sheep being sheep, the might try to climb on it while it is unstable. Doesn’t bear thinking about.
Nevertheless, I got to work quickly. With a collapse like this, all the stones are handily placed next to the wall which helps a lot. That said, they do need to be sorted and moved out of the way.
Once all the fallen stones were cleared, I could see that the wall had basically tipped and one side had completely collapsed. That meant I had to take it all apart almost to ground level. That done, it was fairly straightforward to rebuild it.
The top always takes longer though. As you get nearer the top, there are less stones to choose from. Also, they were quite big making them tricky to stack and heavy to lift (you really only want to lift them once). It’s also important to get the top stones lined up, otherwise it can look a bit shoddy. Towards the end, you spend more time thinking than lifting. Anyway, we are happy with the result. The sheep even came over to have a look!
