Sandstone Dry Stone Wall rebuild in Blebocraigs near St. Andrews, Fife.
- Edwin Lugg
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
The reason to rebuild this wall initially was damage due to tree roots. The roots from a relatively young sycamore had pushed the stone from the retaining wall out. Our clients hope was to rebuild the wall without having to fell the tree. In this situation, I like to get the wall away from the tree allowing the integrity of the wall to remain intact following future growth of the tree.
Following the careful dismantling of the original structure, I wanted to see what condition the original foundations were in and what further work was required. I dug 500mm below ground level and found large foundation stones further than this on the 'mortared section' of the wall (the area to the left next to the outhouse).
As the wall transitions in to dry stone, around the roots of the tree there were no foundations present. Because of the invasive tree roots I decided to pour concrete foundations from the tree onwards. This would enable me to tie the new stonework in to the old without any tree roots undermining the wall in the future.
There were a few considerations with this wall rebuild.
Tying in the wall to the outhouse
Style of construction
Bridge the roots / or build around the tree?
Local vernacular to consider
The wall rebuild was started by another waller / dyker but wasn't able to finish it. Match the style they chose at the other end, but also be sympathetic using the original materials
Build it with a batter or plumb?
Two different styles of coping stone to build with. How do I transition form one to the other?
I chose to go with consistency and to match the style of the original waller / dyker that had started. Dry stone. I also had a 2 metre tolerance to work within. As this was what was the clients title deeds confirmed.
The outhouse was built plumb, so I started the section to the left plumb and adjusted the batter of the wall on the curve. This matched the batter of the wall I was tying in to.
This was the result of the of the plumb section. The original wall had a cover band (A flat top). I decided to lay this in lime mortar with a nod to the original wall, also to give the wall further protection with a suitable material for the stone type. The soft sandstone reclaimed from the original wall required an NHL3.5 lime mortar mix.
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