Stone Inspired

Stone is an ideal building material for use in garden design and landscaping projects.

Use of stone

An amazingly adaptable material, drystone offers many benefits: design flexibility; strength; durability and beauty. Click on an image to view examples that we have built:

Free-standing and boundary walls

Dry stone walls do not require any binding material such as mortar or cement to hold them together. Rather their strength comes through the correct selection and placement of stones. They also offer improved drainage compared to brick or mortared walls, particularly when used for retaining walls or raised beds. As well as being an environmentally-friendly building material, a well-built wall will require minimum maintenance and should last for dozens of years.

The material is extremely versatile and strong - the only real limit to what can be built is the designer's imagination!

Examples of projects

Within stoneinspired.com are examples of the use of stone in fantastic garden settings. Some of the pieces were built as stand alone dry stone walling jobs to enhance a garden; others as part of larger garden design projects.

Drystone Walling courses

Local DSWA branches run training courses for people interested in learning how to build drystone walls. Training courses are run over a weekend, usually about four times a year, and are aimed at absolute beginners. Each course is very hands on, with nearly two full full days of practical work taking down and rebuilding a real wall, supplemented by some theory work. Each course is run by a working professional waller who is there help, guide and inspire. Otherwise, trainees are postively encouraged to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in.

For further details and contact information go to the drystone walling association page.

Sources of stone

The UK is blessed with a varied geology, and this variety of stone allows for many different types of building material - from chunky granite to thin layered Caithness slabs; from rough dolerite to regular sandstone.

Each type of stone offers different combinations of look, feeling, colour and texture. Moreover, there are differences in the look of stone that is freshly quarried to that which has been reclaimed.

Before selecting a stone type, you should consider the likely visual impact of the completed wall.

Free estimates and consultations

We provide free estimates and initial consultations for all walling and landscaping work. If you are interested in redesigning your garden using natural stone, please contact us.