Every month I choose a photograph from Flickr to appear here. Hopefully something interesting and informative or just plain silly.
This month’s photo is from me. It’s called “Dry Stone Walls” and was taken in the Peak District in Derbyshire, England.
The caption on the photo reads, “Dry stone walls need constant care, or else the fairies will kick them over. They come in the night, in little red boots.”
It’s a photo of a dry stone wall, which is in disrepair and covered in moss. A dry-stone wall is a wall constructed from stones without any mortar to bind the stones together. The wall is held up by the interlocking of the stones. Such walls are used in building construction, as field boundaries, and on steep slopes as retaining walls for terracing.
A double wall is constructed by placing two rows of stones along the boundary to be walled. The rows are composed of large flattish stones. Smaller stones may be used in areas where the natural stone shape is more rounded. The walls are built up to the desired height layer by layer (course by course), and at intervals, large tie-stones or through stones are placed which span both faces of the wall. These have the effect of bonding what would otherwise be two thin walls leaning against each other, greatly increasing the strength of the wall. The final layer on the top of the wall also consists of large stones, called cap stones, coping stones or copes. As with the tie stones, the cap stones span the entire width of the wall and prevent it breaking apart. Source: Wiki