Women in Drystone Walling, Perthshire

As a dry stone waller I am very aware that there are far too few women working in walling.

The women who are working professionally are highly skilled and excellent craftspeople and more female wallers would benefit the craft significantly. Yet, there seems to be an issue bringing women into the profession.

I’m very happy to say that I’ve recently begun working with Kristie, a female drystone waller based in Perthshire and it’s been a really interesting and welcome coming together of skills and attitudes. Kristie is working towards her first dry stone qualification and I’m sure she will fly through the levels as she has a great feel for the stone and an exceptional eye for details and design, something which I notice in the work of other female wallers too.

Kristie is also a professional photographer and has decided to document her dry stone journey on Instagram in the hope that she can persuade many more women to enter the craft. Give her a follow for an insight into the world of dry stone as well as beautiful photographs of dry stone she builds and drystone she finds on her wanders around Scotland.

I’ll include some of Kristie’s images below, these are shot on medium format and 35mm film and I can safely say that Kristie is probably the only waller who brings four different cameras to work.

I also greatly look forward to Kristie sharing her thoughts and insights with us as she is keen to write about her experiences as a newcomer and a woman in the world of dry stone.