Dry Stone Walling from Hortlands

The use of natural stone is one of the first skills developed by the human race. These natural resources still remain highly valued and used today within landscape and building construction.

As an example, throughout The Cotswolds region, one of the most aesthetically pleasing creations is dry stone walling using the beautiful, locally sourced honey coloured limestone.

Dry stone walls are extremely strong and long lasting because they are constructed dry without the use of mortar.

Good footings are important when building a dry stone wall and depending on how stable the ground and soil type is, a suitable depth of trench is excavated and large stones wider than the wall are laid and made steady.

Sorting of the stones into size is time consuming but a necessity because dry stone walls are constructed in lines of stones placed at level, even heights. The best built and strongest dry stone walls are created by laying the biggest stones at the base of the wall and the smallest at the top.

The building of a dry stone wall is an art, the outcome a thing of beauty.