Restoring walls with historic past

In the hills above Lyttelton, ancient "dry-stone walls" built by Scottish stonemasons are receiving much needed attention from one of Canterbury's environment crusaders.

Lyttelton Environment Group spokesperson Alison Ross, who has been involved in several projects in the area over the years, has been organising groups of volunteers from overseas to clear vegetation from the historic structures.

Located on Department of Conservation land on Chalmers Farm, the walls date back to the 1880s and were built by Scottish immigrant Adam Chalmers and his wife.

Predominantly farmers, the couple also had a stonemason background, and constructed the walls to terrace what was to be one of the first dairy farms to supply the area.

Ross, who herself comes from a Scottish stonemason background,

has organised groups of international environment volunteers, mostly from America, to come and work on various projects for the past six years.

The focus of the work on the walls, which stretch for around 100m, is to remove overgrown vegetation, particularly before tree roots begin to damage the structure.

Ross said there were no plans to repair or restore the actual walls despite their age.

"It's lasted a hundred years and as long as you're careful with some of these wildings ... it's a very well built wall, brilliantly built. To me it's like exposing Angkor Wat (a temple complex in Cambodia)."

Christchurch resident Bayden Norris, who lived on Chalmers Farm in the 1950s, said he was delighted at the restoration project.

"He (Alan Chalmers) took land up there that was pretty poor but over the years with his wife it's an old Scottish way of farming removed all the stones from the paddock and built a dry stone fence ... and in the process you have cleared your paddock of stones.

"Some of those stones are so big you just can't imagine two people doing it but I understand Mrs Chalmers was just as strong as Mr Chalmers."

After clearing the wall, the group plan to plant native plants and trees with the help of DOC and turn the area into a native reserve.

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