DRYSTONE DYKING is nowadays usually regarded as an occasional rural pastime or ‘dying art’, but for centuries it was a massive national effort with teams of dykers toiling long hours, in all weathers, to provide a framework for agricultural innovation. In this book Nick Aitken travels the world researching the history of the craft, its language, and the walls and structures it created. Did you know that the length of drystone walls in Connecticut alone would almost stretch around the equator? That the oldest drystone structures in the British Isles predate the Egyptian pyramids? That the drystone walls in Ireland were estimated to weigh 669 million tonnes and took 1.3 billion man hours to build? That Hadrian’s wall is wholly built in England? These, and more fascinating facts, myths and legends on related topics, from mud to monoliths, are revealed in this extraordinarily detailed study, illustrated by more than a hundred full-colour photographs of stone constructions from all around the world.

NICK AITKEN is a shepherd’s son from the glens of Tayside in Scotland, where drystone dykes were part of everyday life. After years of working in financial institutions he travelled round the world, returned to Scotland and turned a hobby into a career, joined a local authority in the Scottish Highlands and spent the next 21 years working with a wide range of rock types and structures, including cairns, dykes, blackhouses and brochs. He qualified as a master craftsman, instructor and examiner through the Dry Stone Walling Association. Subsequently, he travelled extensively to gain an encyclopaedic knowledge of the vast range of techniques for working dry stone. In 2017 Nick semi-retired to Seattle to get away from Scottish rain.