Monday, June 8, 2015

Coming to level.


Impressive dry stane dykes, like this one that we inspected on our drive to the ferry to Iona two days ago, draw attention to the fascinating process whereby stones are stacked in morphing pattern from irregular to regimented.

There is a primal satisfaction the eye registers in the gradual re-arrangement of the disorganized into the ordered. Heavy awkwardly shaped bundles of glacial granite are painstakingly collected off the fields, rolled into place, then lifted on top of each other, in what seems a very unpatterned fashion, until eventually the emerging 'wall' ascends into a distinguishable, very level flank of uniform medium size cope stones. They look like a long row of gnarly teeth topping some elongated prehistoric jawbone. 

The whole wall is a massive almost godlike accomplishment - a never-ending process of creating order out of chaos.