The craft of drystane dyking is described in Wilcopoedia as
“A drystane dyke or dry dyke is a waw that is biggit frae stanes athoot ony lime tae bind thaim thegither. As wi ither dry stane structures, the dyke is hauden up bi the interlockin o the stanes. Sic waws are uised in biggin construction, as field boonds, an on stey braes as retainin waws for terracin.
Dykes are a feature of Galloway and a very good article describing their 
importance both in history and how they have influenced our landscape can be found in this link to the Mill on the Fleet website. Particular note should be taken of the description of The Galloway Dyke.
https://millonthefleet.co.uk/walls-in-the-landscape/
A question from Norther Ireland.
A local historian and storyteller, in East Antrim, was intrigued by a story in an old copy of The Scots Magazine from 1995 and sent us the following query
“I am a local historian and storyteller in East Antrim and have been intrigued by a story I revisited in an old copy of The Scots Magazine from 1995.
In a poem written by David McMurray he tells the story of two brothers who had gone off to war and left a stane dyke unfinished. They intended to complete it when they returned but both were lost and the wall was only completed in 1992 when a drystane dyke competition was held “near Kirkcudbright”. Sadly he did not name the brothers, which is a bit unusual.
I have checked out the names on the war memorial at Kirkcudbright and Gatehouse of Fleet online, but there are no clues as to the veracity of the story.
I wondered would it ring a bell to you? It is such a poignant story and I would like to use it if I had the names and then could research them further through military records.”
The Cally Estate in Gatehouse encourages competitions. Click on image for more information.
I contacted Margaret Wright, Gatehouse, to see if she could help. She did some research which can be viewed here.
The 1914 Dyke by David McMurray2
It is also on the Gatehouse Folk website which can be seen here.
http://www.gatehouse-folk.org.uk/detailpage.asp?d=213&ID=30. This also includes more information about local dykes.
Have a look at this Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership video and see a demonstration of Galloway dyking styles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB4h3ixDqwA
We are grateful to Margaret Wright, Gatehouse historian for her help in producing this article.