Hadr(ian's) Wall
For a while now I've been thinking of making a small area where we can sit outside on bonny evenings with our fantastic views over the Atlantic and the Brough of Birsay. I wanted to enclose the rear section of this area with a curved dry stone dyke, so I cleared an area near to the end of our old stone shed and roughly levelled it. When Christine's Polycroo was being built, I got the builders to pile up the spoil from the foundations behind where the wall would be, so that it could eventually be banked up behind the finished wall. I ordered and paid for wall building stone from a local supplier but after more than six months it still hadn't arrived. I never did find out what the problem was - it could have been due to staff shortages during covid but I eventually got my money back - and obviously no stone!
The project then stalled for a while but picked up again recently when I was contacted by a mutual friend needing work done on his Suzuki motorcycle who just happened to have a whole pile of stone from a house that was pulled down over 30 years ago. Swapping some of my time for some stone is tax and VAT free (at the moment!) It would be nice to find the name of that old house and have it chiselled into one of the larger stones where it can be easily read.
A little bit of progress and some sorting of stone for later..... Some of the larger pieces are probably too big for a curved dyke - they may break up if I score them with a diamond blade, then attack them with a sledge. Although it's sometimes heavy work - it's also therapeutic and very rewarding. I'm only working on it between other jobs but I'll get there in the end!
In between other jobs the final touches have been made to the wall - Alfie, our farmer neighbour has done most of it and I have been the labourer. I have done some parts and enjoyed selecting suitable pieces for Alfie to fit - you quickly get the hang of what's needed and once you have picked up a piece, you don't put it down again - it WILL fit somewhere!
The finished wall - just needs the gravel tidying
The View out West over the Atlantic - next stop Nova Scotia!
The little alcove shelf is for a lantern we have had for many years
