Drystone Retaining Wall Rebuild, Comrie, Perthshire

Our latest project was to rebuild an old, failing retaining wall in a beautiful, secluded garden.
To start, we stripped out the original wall, (some unexpected April sun made that a far more pleasurable endeavor), and we made sure to conserve the stone we removed to reuse in the new structure.

For this project, we used ‘Swinton Rubble’, a rough but sturdy form of sandstone, and we made sure (at our client’s request) to follow the natural line of the earth bank as we built.

We also included a large boulder from the original wall as a feature, and so the new wall also traverses the curves of this stone. We recycled most of the original stone into the new wall, either as building stone or as hearting, and topped the finished retaining wall with a layer of thick soil which will fill in with grass and plants over time.

One of the best parts of working outside is the many interactions with nature, and this job was a perfect example of this. As well as stunning views over the Perthshire countryside, we had visits from birds of prey, deer and squirrels. Whilst dismantling the original structure we were lucky enough to find, three slow worms, a frog and a small Common Lizard.