Stone on Stone

Drystone walls are structures built from stones without the use of mortar to bind them together.Many wallsfound throughout the UK are over a hundred years old and they exist as an integral part of the British landscape. Laura grew up on a hill farm in the Scottish Borders, a landscape characterised by its drystone walls.As a child,she had 'mini picnic adventures' beside these dykes, exploring, climbing all over the stones; in winter she helpedher father dig sheep out of the snow where the flock had sheltered beside the walls, 'letting the blizzard lay a driftright over them'. Laura now lives in the Cotswolds, another 'wall-bounded landscape'.Not far from her home is one of the oldestdrystone walls in the world, the 3,500-year-old, exquisitely constructed Belas Knap long barrow. It's not only the Borders and the Cotswolds; many regions across the British Isles are defined by and cherishedfor their drystone walls.The Yorkshire Dales, the Cumbrian Fells, Derbyshire's Peak District, the Mendip andGalloway Hills: all landscapes celebrated and loved for their distinctive walls. Starting and ending in the Cotswolds, Laura travels from Cornwall to north-east Scotland, via Somerset, Wales,the Peak District, the Pennines, Yorkshire, and Galloway, with a detour to Northern Ireland. Readers joining Laura's journey will enjoy discovering drystone walls and their place in the UKcountryside, finding out about their history and the significance of preserving them.They, like her, willfind that drystone walls can frame an understanding of landscape and nature.