28/08/2026
There is a drystone wall in County Down that runs for twenty two miles over the summits of fifteen mountains. It has no gate, it encloses no farm, and no farmer ever asked for it.
It was built between 1904 and 1922 by the Belfast Water Commissioners to mark the boundary of the catchment feeding the city's reservoirs, and its purpose was to keep livestock out of the water supply. The men who built it worked in summer seasons, camped on the mountains, and cut and dressed every stone from the granite they were standing on. It runs around five feet high and two and a half feet thick, and it climbs to the top of Slieve Donard, the highest ground in the north of Ireland.
Eighteen years of work, not a scrap of mortar, and it is still standing. Walkers now follow it as a route in its own right, which was never the intention, and taking it end to end is one of the hardest days on foot anywhere on the island.
Full credit: of ireland
