Sourcing Stone for Dry Stone Walls, Perthshire.

As a dry stone waller working in Perthshire, I have to source stone to build walls. There are stone suppliers who provide quarried and flat bedded stone but my personal taste is for natural field stone walls and I source that stone a different way.

And so ‘stone piles’ come into the picture. These are piles of stones discarded by farmers after they are ploughed up and out of fields. A nuisance to farmers but to a waller, pure gold. It’s always exciting to find a good stone pile

Sustainability is important to me and so sourcing field stone as close as possible to the build site is what I want. While this is not always possible it is the most sustainable practice. Aside from sustainability the financial cost of stone from suppliers is significantly higher. Field stone usually works out much cheaper per ton. Although I would still have to charge for my time to load and transport it, there are significant savings to be made for clients when using natural field stone.

Another issue when ordering from a stone supplier is wastage but that can be significantly reduced when I hand pick the stones from a stone pile. It’s a lot of work but totally worth it as walls built with hand-picked field stone are absolutely some of my favourites. Also, using stones from the land around you is how drystone was originally built. For a long time people living rurally had no way to transport stone and so they built with what lay at and beneath their feet. Although I have the option to be far more discerning, I still love the tradition of building with what comes from the land around you.

As I said, hand picking stones ensures that I have plenty of usable building stone. This might be even more crucial when building features. Copes, cheekend/corner pieces and feature stones can all be hand picked to ensure the build runs smoothly and that plenty of options are available.