Dry Stone Walling, on a National Trust Working Holiday
by Chris Colley, 20 March, 2013, 1 comments
For reasons that are not clear even to me, I have long harboured a desire to learn how to build dry stone walls. So when the opportunity presented itself to get training, and work with a group to take down and rebuild a dry stone wall, I jumped at the chance. The training was part of a package offered by the National Trust as a “Working Holiday.”
The course started with dinner on Monday evening, followed by three days of training and practice. Accommodation was in a farmhouse owned by the National Trust, converted into a bunkhouse with two dormitories, just outside Betws-y-Coed in Snowdonia,
The holiday included accommodation for three nights in the National Trust bunkhouse, all meals, transport between the bunkhouse and the work-site, and training/supervision by two experienced dry stone wallers. All of this for just £90! Costs are kept low by the accommodation being in dormitories, and because everyone attending has to take a turn at cooking one of the evening meals. This was made easy for us: our holiday leader, Sue, had prepared the menus, Read more...
