The Stone Walls of Ireland

 Stone Walls West of Ireland

The typical stone walls iconicly associated with the West of Ireland are dry stone walls, no mortar or cement,  are made by carefully selecting stones that will balance and ‘sit’ into the wall as they are built. The reason for their existence is simple and practical. The land in many parts of Ireland is naturally very stony and in order to be farmed the stones had to be cleared. Since there was no method of getting rid of the stones and there was a need to create separate divisions of land, the obvious thing to do was to build walls, lots of them. The size of the fields is proportional to the stoniness (or poverty) of the land: more stones means more walls means smaller fields.

The walls are built ostensibly by placing smaller stones on larger from base  to top although given their nature there is an element of 'make it up as you go along' depending on the size and shapes of the stones to hand. The stone is primarilly limestone and granite. The walls are never built high and are in need of regular repair and attention. There are no tools or bonding material used, the stones are to 'sit' into the matrix as it evolves.

Their predominance in the west of Ireland derives generally from the gradual decline in farmland quality as one travels from east to west. Cromwell's infamous dictum during the Plantations 'To hell or to Connaught', when the indigenous Irish were driven from their land, graphically sums it up.

During The Great Famine public work schemes were introduced as alleviation measures wherein walls were built literally up the sides of mountains with no obvious divisions of lands. These became known as Famine Walls and can be seen to this day.

The so-called “Great Wall of Mourne” is often mistaken for a famine wall, but is much later, although the local employment it gave during construction was welcome. On average 1.5 meters high and about one meter thick and built from local granite it winds over 35 kilometres, crossing fifteen mountains. It took more than 18 years to complete, from1904 to 1922.