Irish Stone Fences

Beautiful Ireland was once an island littered with volcanic rocks. To clear land for grazing and growing grass the rocks had to be removed but what to do with all those rocks?
Well Ireland is now known as the island of stone fences. In fact it is estimated there are some 400,000 kilometres of stone fences - greater than the distance to the moon - take that Neil Armstrong.
Some of these fences were constructed 5000 years ago, most around 200 years ago and some are still being done today - I witnessed same yesterday. Most of the fences were built when labour was cheap with many constructed during the potato famine of the mid 1800's when people would work for the farmers for food.
While they were relatively expensive the land had to be cleared and given they have lasted this long and they require little to no maintenance,  may have even been cheap.
Most are dry walls - that is built with no mortar or cement. Just carefully and skillfully place the selected stones and you will have a wall to last. Most walls are around a 1 metre high and up to 1 metre thick and some run for kilometres. They make small to large paddocks to contain the livestock, mainly sheep and cattle. They run along roads everywhere, form boundaries and run up and down hills.
There are now many types and forms. The original dry walls are still there, some later ones had some mortar, some had fancy decorated tops, the ones facing roads were fancy and those running back to form the paddocks are less so. Some of the newer ones use cut stones of all shapes and sizes.
Amazing sights wherever you go in Ireland this is one special one - all 400,000 kilometres of it.