Dry stone walls

[weezy1979]

Hi , bit of a random question and don't know if this is the right section but was wondering if anyone knows the material commonly used for building dry stone walls ??
Thanks in advance !

[pug100]

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/drystonewalls. html

and here too in home & garden

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Article3345.htm l

[jno]

I don't suppose the answer would be 'stone', would it?

[Schutzengel]

Sandstone blocks, of rough shapes, so the art of dry stone walling is fitting them together to get the best result. The stones are not stuck tpgether with anything (i.e cement), it' just the art of picking the right pieces to fit together so that they stay solidly where they are placed. Hope this helps.

[Ankou]

These free to download leaflets should answer most of your drywall queries:~

http://www.dswa.org.uk/Leaflets-g.asp

[weezy1979]

Thanks for all your help guys !!

[dundurn]

In much of Scotland the material used in dry stone walls are the wet stones that were dug out of the field and which otherwise would have rendered the field unploughable!

[weezy1979]

Thanks , we were talking about it with the farmer where I keep my horse and he seemed to think there was a specific type of stone used in the west of Scotland ?
Not sure though .

[Lil O'lady]

Because this type of wall is a low-cost local solution in most instances they will be made with locally-available stone. Sometimes wealthy estate owners such as the old water authorities used stone brought in that they had contracted to a supplier for.

[Ankou]

Possibly weezy. According to this geological map ~ on the link I gave you, granite and basalt may have been used in Western Scotland and other parts of the UK.

http://www.dswa.org.uk/UserFiles/File/geology% 20for%20wallers.pdf

[echokilo]

Depends where the wall is ........... local stone would be used, so for example, in the peak district this is mostly limestone etc - so material would vary depending on location