Dry Stone Courses

Dry Stone walling weekend courses are a great way to get together with a bunch of people and have a good time learning the basics of building a wall. I have had the opportunity over the past few years to instruct some of these courses and have taken part in multiple other ones.  There is always such a diverse group taking part from all walks of life. These hands on courses are held during the building season through private organizations and craft associations. It's a great way to meet some new people and learn the ancient craft of dry stone walling. The Dry Stone Walling Association of Canada has a couple great courses annually that people should try and take part in. What separates these courses from the others, is that you get to work on rebuilding sections of heritage walls. The Friends of Ferris provincial park put on a great course in conjunction with the DSWAC where you get to restore a section of 100 year old wall! There is close to 6km of wall in the park and some still in great shape. Please click the Friends of Ferris link to see the slideshow of last years course. I've had the great opportunity to instruct this course over the past couple years. I'm actually from the Northumberland area originally and used to hike the trails when I was in highschool. It was nice to be able to give back to the park in helping restore the walls to their former glory.

I'll be offering a special stone marker course this year in the Guelph area so please stay tuned for more info as we hammer out the details on that.  I can say that the weekend event will be focused on 'Mindfulness and Stone' and will have a guided meditation and talk by a Buddhist practitioner about the connection we have with stone. The second part will be the construction of a stone marker using the 'mindful' practices along with the basic building techniques of dry stone construction. I think this up coming season is going to be an exciting one!