Dry stone walling at Pensychnant Conservation Centre

Dry stone walls are the main livestock barriers and field boundaries in Eryri as rocks are so abundant. We should be proud of our many skilled wallers! Have you ever stopped to wonder at the skill, effort and time entailed to build the walls which snake up the steepest of mountainsides?

A great variety of styles has resulted from the different types of stones locally available. In valleys, you will see walls of rounded stones, taken from stream beds and worn into smooth shapes by rushing water. Near slate quarries, stones tend to be flat with straight faces, as slate splits cleanly. Many walls around houses are topped with quartz, which was thought to scare away evil spirits as well looking pretty.

As well as being important for functional reasons, the stones in walls support their own ecosystems of wildlife, with plants such as ferns, spleenworts, navelwort and ivy-leaved toadflax growing on the wall itself, with foxgloves, Herb Robert, garlic mustard, plantains, dandelions and coltsfoot often growing at their base. They may be almost covered by mosses, especially in our areas of Celtic rainforests, or may be covered in lichens.

Tŷ Hyll, Capel Curig, was famously built without mortar. You can still see old moss between the stones of the walls and chimney, placed there to keep out any draughts.

In February, the Snowdonia Society held a two-day dry stone walling workshop at Pensychnant nature reserve, near Conwy. We are grateful to Julian Thompson, Pensychnant warden, for his encouraging and patient teaching. It was staggering to learn that the wall we were repairing is very likely over five hundred years old!

It was a really fun day, and a chance to learn and have a go at a traditional skill which has shaped our landscapes for generations, by repairing a 5 metre stretch of dry stone wall. Some attendees planned to use the skills they learned to repair walls of their own so it’s great to know that the skills they’ve learned would be put to practical use beyond the course.

Julian says:

Please pass on my thanks to all at Snowdonia Society, and all the volunteers, for their hard work building the walls. I have now finished the coping and it is an excellent wall and a great help to Pensychnant’s efforts to manage its flock and its land. Well done!

Thanks Julian for a brilliant two days!

Conservation Officer, Mary Williams

With thanks to the National Grid’s Community Grant Fund Programme.