Stone Inspired Articles - Stone Inspired

Rocks and stones and water – The Wavey Wall – creative dry stone walling in the Japanese garden of Collessie, Fife.

05 Apr 2024

I’ve worked for Peter and Caroline at their property in Collessie, Fife since 2008. Over the years I’ve built a lot of stonework for them including boundary walls, benches and an arched base for their pizza oven. They’ve allowed me leeway to get creative: I made the Wonky Wall in... Read More

2023 – Building dry stone bridges and going Japanese

30 Dec 2023

2023 has been a year of big dry stone walling jobs and feeling the impact on my daily commute after moving to Fife. I’ve also had the opportunity to push myself building some interesting projects. New House – new location, different commute! January’s big event was moving to Kennoway in... Read More

The Dry Stone walling bucket list

29 Jul 2023

When I first started dry stone walling many moons ago, I was happy to just be out there on the hill farms repairing walls. It was such a relief to be doing something I enjoyed after years trying and failing to find a career in the world of desk jockeys. ... Read More

Stone Inspired in the Movies

03 Jan 2023

In 2017 I was asked to organise the building of various pieces of stonework for the Netflix film about Robert the Bruce, “Outlaw King”. This big budget biopic was meant to be a multi-part production of the life of the famous Scottish medieval King. In the end only this movie... Read More

2022 – a year of dry stone walling firsts and new experiences

27 Dec 2022

2022 was a good year for new walling experiences – a first Chelsea Flower show build; a first trip to remote St Kilda, my first job in England and making the front cover of the Dry Stone Walling Associations quarterly newsletter, the Waller and Dyker. In between the new experiences... Read More

Coccolith – dry stone viewpoint and bench, Titsey Estate, Tatsfield, Surrey

16 Nov 2022

I was asked to build the stonework by the designers Trish Evans and Nick Humphreys from Instar. The work was commissioned by Surrey Hills Arts as one the permanent exhibits for their Inspiring View programme. Inspiring views is a series of permanent works of art – Coccolith is the latest.... Read More

The art of forensic dry stone walling on St Kilda

31 Jul 2022

St Kilda Euan Thompson (aka the stone dyker) and I spent 10 days on St Kilda this July working with the National Trust for Scotland on several dry stone walling and stone structure repairs. St Kilda is a small archipelago about 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides. The main... Read More

Chelsea Flower Show 2022 – The Still Garden gold medal

30 May 2022

Jane Porter, a Garden Designer from Bristol, first got in touch with me in January of this year to ask if I was interested in getting involved with a garden installation at the Chelsea Flower show in 2023. I’ve never had the opportunity to build at Chelsea before and jumped... Read More

2021 – dry stone walling and landscaping review

02 Jan 2022

It’s been another interesting year of dry stone walling and garden landscaping projects for me. I’ve had some lovely projects, worked with some excellent clients and most of the jobs taught me something new. Every day is a school day as they say. The year started with lots of projects... Read More

Body of work – 16 years of dry stone walls

09 May 2021

Last week my LinkedIn account told me it had been 16 years since I started working as professional building dry stone walls. It got me thinking about how many jobs I’ve done in that time. I’ve put together a list of the locations, descriptions and some images of stonework I’ve... Read More

Before and after – transforming gardens with dry stone hard landscaping

28 Mar 2021

This post is about showcasing some of the work Stone Inspired has done over the years. I take a lot of progress pictures and it’s good to see the transformation of the garden space with the addition of our stone work. Edinburgh drystone bench and seating area The clients for... Read More

The joys of working in winter

02 Feb 2021

I’m often asked what I do in the winter. The answer is I work building dry stone walls. Like I do the rest of the year. Working outside, particulary during the pandemic has been a real luxury. Whilst millions are forced to work from home, I get to leave the... Read More

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