The Dry Stone Walls of the Aran Islands

The dry stone walls of the Aran Islands—endless, mortarless, often ridiculous, always gorgeous—are a clever and scenic solution to a tricky problem. How do you create arable land on rocky, windy islands?

The three Aran islands are essentially big chunks of rock, littered with millions upon millions of small rocks. Over centuries, islanders have created grazing land, a few square feet at a time. They cleared rocks from a small area, piled the rocks elegantly into dry stone walls, enclosing a small patch of ground. Sheltered from the wind, the small scraping of topsoil stayed in place and began to accumulate—a process helped by the islanders drying soil-enriching seaweed on the walls. 

Today, the islands are a spectacular gray-green labyrinth, the maze of walls enclosing tiny green fields, occasionally enclosing a shaggy horse or cow. The three islands occupy only 18 square miles. According to one estimate, they contain 1,500 miles of walls.