POTD: Open Borders

Open Borders
Slemish Mountain
County Antrim, Ireland
2019

Having been to Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales before I thought myself pretty familiar with stone walls of various kinds. But I don’t believe I’d ever seen, or at least had never made note of, this type of wall construction which is quite common in parts of Northern Ireland.

According to sources on the internet, this type of wall has a number of advantages. They are quick to build (by comparison to other types of stone walls anyway), take less skill, and make the most of rock resources in areas where rocks in fields are harder to come by. They are not as stable as more complicated walls but that is said to be an advantage as well in that animals (and humans) quickly learn it is not a good idea to try and climb over one as it can result in injury from falling rocks.

 

4 thoughts on “POTD: Open Borders”

  1. Down in Galway County there is a club that rebuilds old stone walls. When I was visiting Ireland Prince Charles made a “State” visit. It was very controversial because of the troubles and history going back a thousand yesrs. Anyway, Charles is a rock wall enthusiast. He visited the Baruns area in Galway and spent a morning with the club rebuilding a wall. Brushes with greatness! Turns out our guide for the 2week trip was president of the club and abandoned us for the morning to Hobnob with the Prince. From my time with Rory I believe he was’nt converted to a fan- but he did’nt bomb the prince either…

    1. Such restraint, not bombing the prince. We’ve had some interesting discussions with folks both in the Republic were we are now and in the North where we were last week about the political situation here. For some strange reason though, they always seem to eventually steer the conversation around to Donald Trump.

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