No 20.  Dry Stone Dyking. The Linkie Hole.

The Crofter many a time made a little money working elsewhere to eke out his few acres. He could usually turn his hand to any task, and frequently he was very good at it.

  Among many jobs dry stone dyking was one. It was a job he could do in his own time, when it suited him rather than the onerous time keeping of harvest when the full squad was needed at yoking time and had to be time kept. This he did too, but dyking he could do on his own time and at his own speed.  Dry stone dyking was, and still is, an art form. Some people are magic, some the dyke might fall down behind them!!  I jest of course!!

 To watch a skilled dyker at work was magic. A stone chosen and measured by eye, lifted and set in the right place, always, no fiddling about to find the right one. His eye would be quite un-erring in choice.

There are so many aspects of dyking that I could not enumerate them all. One that springs to mind was making a Linkie Hole through a dyke. This allowed the shepherd to move the sheep from one field to another, or out onto the rough grass or hill grazing for the night. It was a cheap amd workable gate, easily made, as easily repaired.

The site would be well chosen, preferably where the ground was dry such as on a small rise. Never in a corner of a field, the ground would get too muddy with passing feet.

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There was an art form also in moving the sheep. The best shepherd was a pipe smoker. He could herd the sheep to the hole, get one old dodger ewe who acted as leader to go through, then stand back, take out his pipe, clean it, fill it, light it, have a few contemplative puffs. Meanwhile the sheep would work away at going through, no pushing or dog barking which only made matters worse and slowed down the whole process, apart from a possible squeeze injury which could at times be fatal.   Lambs followed their own mothers through in turn.

A fag smoker was no use as a shepherd, no time, too quick, too pushy!!! My apologies to all fag smoking shepherds, I only speak from my own experiences!!! .

The Linkie Hole was about three feet wide, four feet high, good stone buildt on either side wall to withstand the brushing of many ewes going through. Small stones were of no use, good solid stones had to be chosen with square corners. Some Linkie Holes had flagstones set into the sides which protected the dyke from the erosion of many sheep brushing past. A lintel stone capped the hole, then it was bult over the top to run with the rest of the dyke. A not too heavy half sized thinnish flagstone did service as a door or gate, set aside when open, set across when not. There was usually two posts behind which the flagstone sat to save it from falling over and protect it from smashing.  Alternative to the posts was a heavier flagstone, half the height and which was leant against the big one when in place. It usually did well enough.

Another treat in dyke building, quite unusual , is to be found between Lyth Cossroads and Hastigrew, Barrock Mains and left side of the road.

Every 25 yards of the coping approx there is a rectanguklar block which is about 18 inches long and 12 inches high. Well chosen stones, square built, laid flat. A heavy stone is set vertically against either end, continuing then into the coping.

I was challenged long go to tell what it was. Not a measuring point for ploughing starts, the field ran the other way anyway. At the time I did not know, had not in fact seen them.

As any one who has built a dyke knows too well, getting coping stones to sit upright at first till you get going is not easy, especially with thin stones. the top of the dyke usually has flat tabling stones to set the coping upon, butted tightly edge to edge.

On these Barrock Mains blocks a dyker could set up two of these blocks 25 yards apart, which were secure in themselves. Then, starting from each end, he could place his coping between the two blocks to meet in the centre, at which point he could hammer drive in his final stone as a wedge. The 25 yards length gave sufficient grip that a section of coping could stand on its own between the blocks and not rely on other stones to keep them upright. That section of dyke was built long, long ago, 150 years at least. It still stands as good as new.