Thanks to Charlie for an excellent sequence of photos illustrating the building of a new Butt from start to finish on Bransdale moor.
These first 2 pictures show the start of the project, the first course of stone getting lined up and bedded in, making sure that each individual stone is stable, no movement and fully level with the stones next to it as this sets up the foundations for the whole butt, it then gets back filled with soil.
The next picture shows the butt getting built up, course by course, taking special care to overlap each gap with the stone above, exactly the same technique as used in dry stone walling. As the butt gets higher each course has key stones (throughs) put into it, these protrude out into the soil heap so as to brace it, the back filling with soil is repeated on every course, the layers progress and the butt begins to take shape.
We can now see the completed stonework of the butt with all the back filling done. The Bilberry turfs are then added on top of the completed butt, through time they’ll become established and they will then just need strimming each year to keep them looking tidy.
The majority of butts seen on the fell are not fenced, however the sheep seem to really bother the butts around this area, climbing on them and disturbing the turf, the fence will hopefully reduce the need to re turf regularly. The last photos shown are the finished product, painted fence, butt number painted on, strimmed around the back and sides and the newly laid turf has even had a slight trim so as to give the desired shape.
A lot of hard work but what a great result, a definitely impressive butt!!!