WHAT TO EXPECT

What Happens on a Two-Day Dry Stone Walling Course

If you have never done it before, it is hard to picture what two days of dry stone walling actually involves. This page walks through it honestly — the work you do, the pace it is worked at, what is provided and what you need to bring.

You build a real wall, not a demonstration

The course is taught at working quarry and countryside venues in Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds — at a working Cotswold quarry, not a car park. Over the two days you build a real stretch of wall from the ground up, and the wall you help build stays in the landscape.

That matters more than it might sound. You are not practising on a training rig that gets taken apart at the end of the weekend. You are working real stone, in real conditions, on a wall that has to stand.

The eight stages you work through

The workshop follows the traditional craft sequence, and the stages run in the order a waller would actually build. Each one depends on the one before it, which is why the course runs across two days rather than one.

1. Health and safety with stone. How to handle and move stone without hurting yourself or anyone near you.
2. Stripping out an old wall. Taking down a failed section and sorting the stone you recover, because a rebuilt wall is mostly built from what was already there.
3. Setting frames and lines. Establishing the shape the wall has to follow before a single stone is laid.
4. Preparing and laying foundations. The course that carries everything above it.
5. Building the first lift. Your first real course-work — choosing each stone for the gap in front of you.
6. Placing through stones. The long stones that tie both faces of the wall together and stop it splitting apart.
7. Building the second lift. Working up the wall, with the eye you have started to develop for which stone goes where.
8. Placing copestones. The finishing course along the top that locks the whole wall down.

By the end of the weekend you will have worked every stage of a traditional dry stone wall, from stripping out to coping.

What the work is actually like

Walling is hands-on outdoor work, but it is worked at a considered pace and suits a wide range of fitness levels. Stones are lifted, not hauled — good technique matters more than strength, and a large part of the two days is spent looking at stone and deciding where it goes rather than shifting it.

The course is taught entirely outside, in whatever the weather does. Participants must be 16 or over.

No experience is needed. The workshop is designed for complete newcomers as well as people returning to develop skills they already have, and it is taught in groups of no more than twelve — small enough that you get looked at properly while you work.

Who teaches you

Workshops are taught by Richard Gray and Eric Sainvet, both working professional wallers. Richard — known professionally as The Cotswold Waller — is a professional member of the Dry Stone Walling Association and has built and restored walls across Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds since 2006. Eric Sainvet runs ES Stonework.

The course is taught to a traditional beginners’ syllabus.

What is provided, and what to bring

All walling tools and equipment are provided, and instruction is included in the course fee. What you need to bring is clothing for a working day outdoors:

• Work or gardening gloves — required. A supply of spares is available if you forget yours.
• Sturdy boots and outdoor clothing you do not mind working in.
• Warm layers and waterproofs — the course runs outside whatever the weather.
• A hat and sun cream, which matter more than people expect on an exposed site.
• A packed lunch and drinks for both days.

Everything else is provided.

After you book

Joining instructions are emailed after booking, with the venue address, parking and facilities. Venues are working quarry and countryside sites in Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds, so the address is not always somewhere you would find by guessing — the directions come to you.

The two-day Introduction to Dry Stone Walling workshop is £195 per person, including all tools, equipment and instruction.

What you leave with

Two things. The first is the wall itself — you will have worked every stage of it, and it stays in the landscape long after the weekend.

The second is a Certificate of Attendance, emailed to you on completion of the course. It carries its own certificate number and a QR code, so it can be checked at any time using our certificate verification page — useful if you ever need to show an employer or a landowner that you have done the training.

To be clear about what it is: it is a Dry Stone Training certificate, recording your attendance and completion of this workshop. It is not a qualification awarded by any external body.

Still deciding?

The frequently asked questions cover cost, experience, fitness and age in more detail. If you would rather learn one-to-one or with a group of your own, private tuition can be arranged separately from the scheduled workshops. For anything not answered here, get in touch.