After two days of cold and rain, a good deal of stonework was accomplished on this first dry day on site. Taking measurements from the drawings, we laid out the shape of the benches- first in string and then chiselled the lines into the foundation.

Owen, Sam and Tom pose as though they were sitting on the soon-to-be built bench facing the rugby pitch.

The local Aberdeenshire granite stone that was used for the rubble wall benches is a harder and more brittle stone than most of the masons had worked with before. Luckily, Andrew Bradley, our master mason is very familiar with the material and passed along his knowledge to the apprentices as they roughly dressed the large pieces of stones.


Owen dresses the first stone as Andrew guides the mallet along the line of the angle. It is a process of many gentle taps until the stone splits along the desired line.

Calvin and Tom mark out the angles on the large pieces of granite stone to cover the variety of corner conditions around the design.

Andrew and Sam work to get the first rubble stone set in place, level and squared up along the lines of the benches

Many Ellon community locals stop by the site each day (even in the rain) to check on the progress. Some of the extremely generous women from the community council made a cake for the apprentices, arranged football matches with some of the local men, and even helped out with the most pressing issue for the guys- their LAUNDRY!

As the stonework continued on site with a desired ‘look’ established of stone sizes and arrangement, I was off to Edinburgh to the timber frame workshop in the morning. Here is a picture of the Scottish countryside from the train.