Ditches, Dykes And Danish Fences

Throughout Northern Ireland there are over 8,000 kilometres of dry stone walls.

Walls or ditches, dykes and even Danish fences, as they are known in different locations through the country, are as much part of the landscape as the fields and hills. Often, particularly in our uplands, they are features in their own right. Standing dramatically against the horizon they provide welcome shelter from the most extreme weather. However they can also be found integrated into earth banks and hedgerows on lowland farms.

Well built dry stone walls provide good stock control and excellent shelter. They will last a life-time (or two) and provide great value for money. They are environmentally sustainable, made from 100 percent recycled materials and most of us would agree - they look great! They are also great for wildlife. The many nooks and crannies in a wall, depending which way it faces can be damp, dry, warm or cool. As well as the obvious mosses, ferns and lichens, they provide habitats for a wide range of small mammals and insects. It is also popular with our one native reptile - the common lizard - and provide nesting opportunities for a number of notable bird species including the wheatear which visits here from Africa each spring.

There is good deal of variability in the material and design of walls throughout Northern Ireland. The heavy granite blocks making up walls in the Mournes, contrast with the smaller, less regular, gravity defying dark basalt rocks that make up the majority of the walls in the Antrim Glens. Granite stone walls are also common around Slieve Gullion in South Armagh and limestone walls can be found at the lower end of Lough Erne.

Although farmers today have less time on their hands for general day to day upkeep of their walls, those participating in the Countryside Management Scheme (CMS) and Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) Scheme can avail of incentives for good field boundary management and for restoration of dry stone walls. These incentives, as well as the tighter restrictions on removal of field boundaries are helping to reverse the estimated 7.1 percent decline in the length of dry stone walls that has taken place here between 1991 and 1998 (Northern Ireland Countryside Survey 2000).

Good dry stone wallers are in great demand. It is highly skilled, heavy work which requires arms of steel, a good eye for detail and a head for structural engineering. Tony Rodgers has been building and repairing walls in County Antrim for most of his adult life. He spent many years working with the late Frank Smith and between them they have restored many miles of walls between Ballyclare and Ballycastle. A good deal of Tony’s work comes from farmers in the Antrim Coast and Glens Environmentally Sensitive Area.

Dry stone walls are a valuable asset on any farm. They need care and attention but the rewards for this effort can be seen and felt for decades to come….that’s just not something you can say about a fence!

For further information about dry stone wall management or if you would like to consider adding wall restoration work to an existing CMS or ESA Scheme agreement please contact Countryside Management staff at your local DARD office.

For details of a dry stone wall training course to be held at Greenmount Hill Farm, Glenwherry on 3 and 4 September contact Niall Donaghy, College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise, tel: 028 8676 8271.