Dry Stone Festival

Poster to advertise the weekend on Amherst Island

We went to Amherst Island on Saturday from 9:30 A.M.  to 6:30 P.M. It was such a great time. I took so many pictures from which I will share only some of during the next few days. 

One of Amherst Island's Irish stone fences

A little history lesson? Early Irish settlers came to Amherst Island between 1820-80. They cleared the fields and used the abundance of stone to build their homes, barns and stone walls using the skills they brought with them from the Ards Peninsula in Ireland. Amherst Island has the most heavily concentrated area of stone wall fences in Canada, some of them 190 years old. Nine of them have been "designated" while six more walls are in the process of being designated as culturally and historically significant. These walls represent only a fraction of the number of walls built in the 19th century. As Island carriage roads were widened to accommodate motor vehicles, the fences were demolished and the stones used as fill for the road. 

 During the two day workshop, workers built a sampler wall using different techniques and  stones. Both participants and instructors came from all over the world. The gentleman to the left of the photo, wearing the Amherst Island Apron, is the Queen's stone waller from Balmoral castle. This event was hosted by both the Canadian and the Irish stone wall associations. 

But the stone walling festival  was not the only event going on this weekend on the Island. There were guided walking tours of Stella from the museum and craft shop , the children's potato walling event and photo displays of other stone walls around the world at the school, an old fashioned Harvest Festival, and Irish music and dancing in Emerald. 

The children were given free workshops in the skills of dry stone. Their materials were potatoes. 

At five o'clock, the dignitaries were piped in.

The Irish Ambassador to Canada, Ray Bassett, is the distinguished looking gentleman in the dark suit and holding an orange folder. Jane Urquhart (acclaimed Canadian author of the Stone Carvers) is standing to the right of the Ambassador. She was presented a stone with a quote from her book that will be placed into the wall.  The tall gentleman to the right and behind her is Michael Coteau, Ontario Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Ambassador Bassett buried a time capsule in the wall, which still has another full day's work before completion. The woman in yellow, is the president of the Island's Women's Institute. She presented a stone from the Ards Women's Institute from Northern Ireland, which will also be incorporated into the stone wall. 

Tomorrow I will present some fun photos from the music and Harvest festivals that were going on at the same time. Hope your weekend was fun and interesting.