We had a grand turnout of eight members for Cowden, including new members Alister Elwis and Richard Pawlyn.

Another wonderful sunny weekend for the final, but one, training course of the season.

The August weekend at South Mains was a glorious one. With wall to wall sunshine, excellent building stone, with extra available on request, together with Daan and Kirsty’s wonderful cooking: morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea, what more could a group of wallers hope for? I’m really sorry I missed it.

Two days of wibbley, wobbley wall together with intermittent wet and steaminess, sums up our time at Burmieston

The Blackruthven Training course usually takes place at the end of July and proves to be very popular each year. Perhaps it’s the hope of better summer weather (not always fulfilled) or the central location or the possibly potential trainees have heard the stone is easy to lift and the built wall more likely to look good.

We were delighted to have the opportunity to promote the work of the Branch through a Public Engagement Day at Murton Nature Reserve.  We decided to call this day ‘Stonefest’, remembering past successful events under the same name.  Planning began several months beforehand and many hours were spent pouring over old photographs, choosing those which fitted in best to particular categories and thinking of appropriate captions.

We were met with a fine day, not too warm, eight trusty wallers, and large amounts of nice stone looked out for us.

Camserney is well known to members for its enormous stone. This time was no different and we had to struggle to move some enormous boulders, lining them up to make a stable base for the section in need to repair.

It was an enthusiastic bunch of eight trainees from all corners of our area and beyond, who arrived at South Mains for the first course of the year.

We arrived when the new and very imposing gates opened at 9.30. This much safer access from a small road behind the gardens is clearly signed. Our remit was to continue restoring an old overgrown and crumbled wall. Extra stone had been brought from their quarry site

We were pleased to receive an invite from the Monachyle Mhor hotel management in Balquidder to take part in a rural skills weekend on Saturday 30th March. Stephen Donne, professional waller, had agreed to demonstrate hedge laying and I agreed to take up the challenge of a wall demo.

We returned to Craighall Den in mid October to continue the wall begun in July.  On Saturday there were five members working alongside five Countryside Trust Volunteers with Calum instructing.

Nine members attended this year’s AGM at Luncarty Church Hall on Saturday 3rd November.

Having got over our initial disappointment that we weren’t going to be able to finish off the work on a retaining wall begun by Stuart McDonald and 8 apprentices on the Friday, there being no earth to fill in the bed and not enough stones for covers, we got started on a further section of the car park wall, lining up with the trainees’ section.

The second visit of the year to Cambo was the last of our Beginners Training Courses in Dry Stone Walling for 2018. 

Calum Williams, instructor for the event, led an enthusiastic group of nine trainees during a rather cold September weekend.

Our stall at the Rait games in 2016 was a great success with members of the public showing considerable interest in our work, so we were happy to return this year and asked Steve Donne if he could come along again with his miniature walls.

We’ve been to South Mains farm near Forfar twice this year continuing working on the long stretch of wall from the entrance.

It was lovely to return to Dunkeld to work on the boundary wall at Hamish and Ginny Carlton's.

Congratulations to Trish Waite and Gregor Smart of CSB for taking part in DSWA's 50th Anniversary Walling Competition

Fourteen members attended this event at Huntingtower Hotel to meet Ian Dewar again and honour his energy, breadth of vision and long commitment to dry stone walling.