Rustics Steps Formed From Large Sandstone Boulders
Hewn by hand from large sandstone boulders, a flight of steps leading through a rockery and beside a stream. The scheme was designed by Acres Wild Garden Design Practice as part of a very much larger project.
Using drills and ‘plug and feather’ method of splitting large boulders in the quarry, the steps are dressed and shaped using a sharpened matthook (a pick-axe type hand tool) and married one stone on top of the other with no sand and cement or other means of fixing them. Each step weighs over one hundred kilos, and is set back into the bank.
Very simple, very effective – but not an easy build due to the process required and weight of the units. After only a few months dressed, the stones quickly weather and become much darker and less visually intrusive.
