Ilkley Eastside Wander #15: Destacked Drystack
This is the 15th of a series of 20 caches which will take you through some of the lovely countryside immediately to the south-east of Ilkley.
The cache, a small camo-taped film canister, is hidden under a rock at the base of a collapsed section of dry stone wall. Note: it is NOT hidden in the wall, so do not move any wall rocks or stones.
See GC8PCW2 Ilkley East Wander #1: Intro and . . . Prick!? for information on the series and waypoints. See Gallery for an annotated map with cache locations and parking spots.
If doing Full Series in sequence: from #14, continue a short distance along the footpath heading north across the field then pick up another footpath leading right (east). Follow this around the edge of Mount Stead and across to the cache location.
If doing Mini-Series 2: park at P3 and refer to IEW#1 using the link above to reach IEW#13 then continue with the shorter sequence to IEW#14 then as above.
Dry stone walling is a historical traditional craft which has done much to enhance and define the British landscape. There are around 200,000 km of dry stone walls and dykes stretching across the British landscape, many in a state of disrepair.
However, funding for repairs will never be available and is in many cases the repair may not be necessary. Nevertheless, there are sufficient parts of the countryside where such structures do need to be kept in good order, including distinctive landscape features to keep wallers busy for centuries to come.
For other wallers, wishing to extend their skills into more distinctive architectural and artistic features, the craft offers a very rewarding and satisfying career alongside other crafts and trades engaged in the building conservation sector. An annual dry stone walling competition is held in Malham.
Dry stone walls are a distinctive feature of the British countryside. There are over 8,000 km in the Yorkshire Dales alone, some dating back over 600 years to when they were built to repel wolves, and form the largest man-made feature in the Dales.
Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method where structures are built from stones without any mortar to bind them together. These structures are made stable by their unique construction method, characterized by the presence of a load-bearing façade of carefully selected interlocking stones.
Dry stone construction is best known in the form of stone walls, traditionally used for the boundaries of fields and churchyards, or as retaining walls for terracing, but dry stone sculptures, buildings, fortifications, bridges, and other structures also exist.
The art of dry stone walling was inscribed in 2018 on the UNESCO representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, for dry stone walls in countries such as France, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Switzerland and Spain.
Some dry stone wall constructions in NW Europe date back to the Neolithic Age. Some Cornish (stone) hedges are believed by the Guild of Cornish Hedgers to date from 5000 BC although there is little dating evidence.
In County Mayo, Ireland, an entire field system made from dry stone walls, since covered in peat, has been carbon-dated to 3800 BC.
Terminology varies regionally. When used as field boundaries, dry stone walls are often known as dykes, particularly in Scotland. Dry stone walls are characteristic of upland areas of Britain and Ireland where rock outcrops naturally or large stones exist in quantity in the soil. They are especially abundant in the West of Ireland, particularly Connemara.
Dry stone walls and structures occur in many parts of the world including throughout the Mediterranean, USA, Swiss-Italy border, Croatia, Peru (built by the Incas) and Zimbabwe (Great Zimbabwe).
A wall's style and method of construction will vary, depending on the type of stone available, its intended use and local tradition. Most older walls are constructed from stones and boulders cleared from the fields during preparation for agriculture (field stones) but many also from stone quarried nearby. For modern walls, quarried stone is almost always used. The type of wall built will depend on the nature of the stones available.
One common type called a 'double' wall is made by firstly placing two rows of stones along the boundary to 
be walled. Large foundation stones are ideally set into the ground to rest firmly on the subsoil. Rows are made up of large flattish stones, becoming smaller as the wall rises. Smaller stones may be used as chocks in areas where the natural stone shape is more rounded. See video here.
The walls are built up to the desired height layer-by-layer (course by course) and, at intervals, large tie-stones or through stones are placed which span both faces of the wall and sometimes project. These bond together what would otherwise be two thin walls leaning against each other, greatly increasing the strength of the wall. Diminishing the width of the wall as it gets higher, as traditionally done in Britain, also strengthens the wall considerably. The spaces between the facing stones are carefully packed with smaller stones (filling, hearting).
The final layer on the top of the wall also consists of large stones, called capstones, coping stones or copes. As with the tie stones, they span the width of the wall and prevent it breaking apart. In some areas, such as South Wales, there is a tradition of placing the coping stones on a final layer of flat stones slightly wider than the top of the wall proper (coverbands).
As well as gates the walls may have gaps for the passage or control of wildlife and livestock such as sheep. Smaller holes usually less than 8 inches high are called 'Bolt Holes' or 'Smoots'. Larger ones may be 18-24 inches high and are called a 'Cripple Holes'.
These iconic walls are also home to many wild animals, birds and plants, providing a crucial sheltered and safe habitat for wildlife.
See here for more fascinating information on these locally familiar structures and History of dry stone walls for an excellent, comprehensive and richly illustrated piece. See also the short blog Coping through commemorating the craft of dry stone wallers.
See here for a short BBC video on dry stone walls filmed in West Yorkshire and here for an interesting video on how to build/repair dry stone walls.