Dubbs, a popular bridleway.
Part of the wall - bordering the Dubbs road (bridleway) next to a ladder stile - had become very unstable. The wall is nearly nine feet high in places and looks much taller as it is built on a steep bank.
It was too dangerous to take the wall down progressively (as is usually the case). To make it safer, the bad section of wall was "allowed"to collapse completely, with just a little help...minimal encouragement was needed!
GOING!
GOING!
ER...GONE!
The wall was built from local Applethwaite Quarry stone. This stone is notorious for its poor quality. It is prone to frost damage and disintegrates surprisingly quickly.
Water gets into the cracks of the stones; in a frost the water expands and ice forces the cracks to become wider and wider over time.
In this close-up image of a wall built from Applethwaite stone, it is clear that some stones are crumbling away; the stones above have sagged and this section of wall, like the one above, is on the brink of collapse.
With the fun bit over, the stones were cleared back in order to dig out for the foundations or footing stones; this image gives some idea of how steep the bank is we had to work on.
The foundations are in place and the wall is now being rebuilt.
Luckily, we recently put in a new entrance through a woodland wall at St.Catherine's to allow for timber extraction. The surplus stone was brought in for this rebuild as so much of the original walling stone had disintegrated.
The stones are 'tied into' or overlapped into the sound part of the wall that is under the ladder stile in this image.
The finished wall repair from the high side...
...and the track side.
And just a reminder of what it did look like!
A view from the ladder stile, Troutbeck valley and village.