Few things are simpler or more beautiful than a well built drystone wall. I used to wonder about these walls. How were they built? What were the techniques? I found out that there are no real tricks or secrets, just hours of strenuous, mind focusing work. Fortunately, that’s just what I like. When I was building these walls in Kentucky, I almost always worked alone, somewhere on a hillside or on the edge of a field or pasture. I like to work without gloves, to get a better feel for the stone. After a couple of days with bare hands on sharp Kentucky limestone, the hands would get extremely tender and then turn hard. It was best to just keep on working and let the hands toughen up.

Building a drystone wall is similar to assembling an intricate puzzle (except with heavy pieces). Every stone has its own place.The first important thing is to establish a strong foundation upon which the wall is built. The technique is not difficult but you should take the time to do a proper job. The rest of the wall’s weight will rest on this foundation.The next step is to build up the height of the wall. Here it is important to use the stones shape correctly and follow the 2 over 1 and 1 over 2 rule.Hearting, I found out, also plays an extremely important role in the strength and durability of the wall. Hearting- is the stone, or broken pieces of stone that are individually placed behind face stone and between both sides. The placing of these hearting stones is not at all random.Tieing the two faces together is another important aspect of the building process. Somehow the two faces of the wall need to be tied together. This can be partially achieved with the placement of each stone, but sometimes special through-stones are placed in the wall. Some walls are finished with a final course called ’coping’. These stones rest on the top to add extra weight to the wall and also to tie the two sides together. There are some minor differences between field stone walls and limestone walls, but the basic building principles apply to both types of wall.

What so much attracts me to this type of building is its simplicity-in material, tool, and process. I don’t know of many other types of work where you stand alone in nature, stone in hand, before your creation. Simple, nearing perfection.