Finally finished the pillars in Bathgate (well nearly)

Red sandstone pillars

Thankfully the weather has been mild enough the past week or so to allow me to build the pillars at this job in Bathgate.

I’ve been using mortar on the inside of the stones, but hidden from the outside, to make the pillars look dry. This way it preserves the dry stone look, and merges in with the rest of the dry stone walls that I am making. However it is quite a slow process as the dimensions have to be very exact, and the joins tight. It would be a lot easier and quicker using mortar to build and point the joins between the stones, but maybe not as satisfying to do!

I also find it very hard building stonework vertically, as I am so used to see walls with a batter (i.e. the wall is wider at the base than the top, so the wall has about a 1:6 to 1:8 gradient on it.)

The pillars are 1m tall and 0.5m square.

All that remains to do is mortar the large cap stones on top.