PRACTICE MEET, SCOUTHEAD FARM, JUNE 2026

Practice Meet:  June 14th, 2026

Venue: Scouthead Farm, Scouthead

Conditions: Lovely early summer day – perfect walling weather.

We made a very welcome return to this new site, following our successful start in May, with ten members in attendance. Once again, our host, John, was there to help us set up, with tarpaulins to lay the stone out on (very helpful in long grass when clearing up at the end of the day). He had also brought up some extra long stones, which we were planning on using to create a step stile over the rebuilt section of wall.

The decision was made to dismantle the next section of wall to the southwest of the section we had rebuilt on our first visit. As the original height of this middle section of wall is higher than the rebuilt height, it means we are “liberating” some spare stone, which will be useful when rebuilding some of the other sections of the wall which are not as tall.

The foundations went back in smoothly and the wall started to go up steadily. The long stones were carefully measured by Lee and their positions in the wall were provisionally decided. None of them were quite long enough to protrude on both sides of the wall as steps, so the decision was made to go up one side and down the other, as single steps. The spacing, both horizontally and vertically, of the steps needed to be checked carefully to ensure it worked.

By the end of the day, the steps were all in place (tested out by Bev!) and the wall was making good overall progress. This site has some of the nicest walling stone we have ever worked with, and we are very much looking forward to many more Practice Meets on this farm.

With perfect walling weather, we didn’t need to make much use of the barn on this occasion, but knowing we have somewhere to shelter (and make a brew!) on the days when the weather isn’t so good, makes this a great site to return to. An added bonus on this occasion was the sound of Skylarks singing high above us at regular intervals.

Kathy England