Dry stone walling day at Foxburrow Wood

Join our Countryside and Reseves Manager, Toby Swift, to learn the basics of Cotswolds Dry Stone Walling.

Over 4,000 miles (6,437 km) of dry stone walls run across the Cotswold landscape, and they are an instantly recognisable characteristic of the Wychwood Forest area. Like character lines on a much-loved face, dry stone walls are so familiar that we would probably only notice them if they vanished. Sadly, following changes in farm and land management as well as increasing labour costs, many walls have fallen into disrepair.

Dry stone walls offer amazing habitat and wildlife corridors. Mosses and lichens, pennywort and cranesbill all make their homes here. Slow worms, bees and wasps live within nooks and crannies. Birds like wrens, wheatears and little owls nest in cavities.

Then, of course, there’s the point of keeping rural skills alive. As much art as science, building a dry stone wall without mortar relies…