Thursday 1 October 2015

What did you do on your holidays?

Over the summer I finally finished the wall I have be re-constructing at our cottage in Co Mayo, Ireland.

The original was probably built over a hundred years ago but has most likely been partly rebuilt during that period, as the section furthest from the road was of an old and unusual style known locally as feidín, where the base and lower part of the wall is built with small stones, often with large uprights at regular intervals, with larger stones used for the upper part. My understanding is that this particular style is only found in walls in parts of Galway and Mayo, but oddly also in Galloway in Scotland. Several local people were able to name this style but no one had a translation from the Gaelic or a reason why it was used in this area - more research needed.

This is the feidín section nearest the camera and I was able to retain the lower part, having removed a large tree stump from the middle of the wall. You can also see the remains of the ivy which had completely covered the wall and dislodged most of the upper stones. Additional stone came from some recently demolished sheds that were of a similar age to our cottage.


This is my first attempt at a dry stone wall and whilst it may not last 100 years I hope it will see me out.



1 comment:

  1. Roger ,
    Great job , especially for a first attempt .
    Amazing what can be done after a ' drop of the black stuff ', !!

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