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Old Dry Stone Walls Bring the Scottish Highlands to the Kawarthas

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Old Dry Stone Walls Bring the Scottish Highlands to the Kawarthas

Date: 09/11/2013

In Britain, where the craft of dry stone walling is at least three and a half thousand years old, the landscape feature is common in the northern and western parts of the land, where rock and stone are abundant above the soil, and especially where trees and hedges do not grow easily given the climate, higher altitude, strong winds or thin soil. A car ride along Balsam Lake Drive gives one the perfect vantage point to take in the scale of the dry stone walls, but a leisurely walk along the road is perhaps the best way to absorb the intricacies of the stone work - including the occasional gaps in the walls, which were built for the passage of livestock. With every season, the walls seem to frame the beauty of their surroundings. In spring, flowering lilac branches drape against the capstones, the final layer on the top of the wall. And a few months later, their grey surface contrasts sharply with the splendour of autumn. In winter, the upper reaches of the stone field enclosures are capped with snow. Through the years, the dry stone walls on Balsam Lake Drive have served as a backdrop for family photos. A neighbour, a Laidlaw descendant, showed me a photo of a girl taken around 1910 in front of his Balsam Lake cottage. The smiling girl, in an apron dress, lace-up boots, and a straw boater hat stood proudly in front of the dry stone walls. In fact, the stone field boundaries were taller one hundred years ago as decades of paving and road work have diminished their height.

My own nieces, who are now roughly the age of the Edwardian girl in the black-and-white photo, love to pose for a snapshot in front of the wall, constructed from one of the earth’s most beautiful resources.

Hence, it’s no surprise that the walk along Balsam Lake Drive is a favourite route for many of our guests, and a ritual for some. At the same time, the dry stone walls double as living history. George Laidlaw, who lived from 1828 to 1889, commissioned the walls for his Fort Ranch property on the western shore of Balsam Lake. Here, he raised sheep and cattle, which he imported from Scotland and the Jersey and Guernsey Islands. Laidlaw, who hailed from Scotland, was a prosperous grain merchant and a promoter of narrow gauge railways. In 1880, Laidlaw commissioned a Scottish stonemason, Mr. Scott, to build the dry stone walls. Employing local labourers and horses pulling stone boats, Scott methodically and skillfully built more than 10,000 feet of wall. Dry stone walls were erected as field enclosures to keep sheep and cattle off the road. Some walls were built on the fields as sorting pens and included sheep runs inside the walls, allowing animals to cross the main road to fields on the other side. The structural integrity of the dry walls arises from compressional forces and the carefully interlocked stones; indeed, the walls are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. A well-built wall can last more than 200 years with maintenance. The walls on Balsam Lake Drive, believed to be the longest dry stone walls in Canada, are lovingly cared for by Laidlaw’s descendants.

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