Students at the Irish Canadian Dry Stone Wall Festival on Amherst Island near Kingston Ontario this weekend will be working on a traditional Irish 'Feidin' wall.
Patrick McAfee who is instructing the training course along with a dozen or so professional volunteers explains that examples of this unusual style of wall are found predominantly in the Aran Islands on the west cost of Ireland. The larger upright stones are called 'mothers' The smaller flat stones are called the 'children', and the large uprights on top are called 'fathers'.
We have gathered some big mothers for the 'Feidin' walling event.
Some are carried and laid in place the traditional way
Some are lifted by Irish Bob Cats.
Here Patrick is making sure all the mothers are standing up straight
And now he's taking a short rest, sleeping between two of them
There were tons of other things happening at the festival site yesterday and there will be tons more happening today. I'll try to have some photos posted of a lot of the festivities during the day.
If you are planning to come today don't take your car on the ferry, just walk on. The festival site is walking distance from where the ferry docks on the island.
