Stones in all their beauty

I've been enjoying reading so many beautiful, wonderful , articulate, insightful and interesting blogs recently as part of Effy's Blogalong challenge .... 

Kathleen posted a lovely one about Rocks  - 
I mentioned the lovely walls we have near here and thought I'd tell you more today.    




I live in a beautiful area and one of my favourite drives to take visitors on, is up through the mountains to see the Mourne Walls ... you'll also find something similar to these in the Aran Islands off the Galway coast.  

The Mournes are granite and were formed a long time ago ...  as a result of the Ice Age the land was covered with rocks - the ones that Finn McCool didn't throw at someone -  and farmers clearing the fields of stones built walls with them ... dry stone walls ... the mountains are crisscrossed with them ... and I find them so beautiful... It's like a patchwork quilt.  

I can see lace patterns in them ....

and years of history ....  if these walls could only talk

and apart from all the small ones enclosing fields, there is one huge wall - 

The Mourne Wall 

These following photos are courtesy of the Tourist Board

It is 22 miles long and was built to keep sheep and cattle away from the Reservoirs that were being built to supply water to the new city of Belfast.  In a wonderful testament to the craftsmanship of the day, some parts of that wall are almost vertical and most of it is still intact today ... 



It crosses 14 peaks and skirts around the bottom of another one.  It took 18 years to build and is mostly 6 ft high and 3 ft wide .... 








....One of these days I'm going to walk it.   

The Mourne Wall is a great tribute to stone I think ....

This is Day 12 of Effy Wild's Blogalong Challenge ... Great fun:)  Find out more here
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