12 Facts About Dry stone

Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together.

Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction method, which is characterized by the presence of a load-bearing facade of carefully selected interlocking stones.

Dry stone construction is best known in the context of stone walls, traditionally used for the boundaries of fields and churchyards, or as retaining walls for terracing, but dry stone sculptures, buildings, bridges, and other structures exist.

The term tends not to be used for the many historic styles which used precisely-shaped Dry stone, but did not use mortar, for example the Greek temple and Inca architecture.

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, Slovenia, Croatia, Switzerland and Spain.

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When used as field boundaries, dry stone structures are often known as dykes, particularly in Scotland, where professional dry stone wall builders are referred to as 'dykers'.

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.

Sometimes the dry stone terracing is apparent, often combined with parts of stone masonry that are held together by a clay and pine needle "composite" mortar.

In Croatia, dry stone walls were built for a variety of reasons: to clear the earth of stone for crops; to delineate land ownership; or for shelter against the bora wind.

Dry stone retaining walls were once built in great numbers for agricultural terracing and to carry paths, roads and railways.

Dry stone retaining structures continue to be a subject of research.

In Great Britain, Ireland, France and Switzerland, it is possible to find small dry stone structures built as signs, marking mountain paths or boundaries of owned land.