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Thursday 19 May 2022

Vaccary walls

I first heard of 'vaccary walls' in connection with the Chevin ridge in Otley. When we visited Wycoller, I discovered there are a lot of them in that area. They are believed to be medieval field enclosures, associated with the vaccaries: small scale commercial cattle farms in the area in the 14th century. Unlike the more familiar dry-stone walls, vaccary walls consist of large irregular slabs of stone placed upright. 


I can't decide between colour and mono for this image - both have their merits, I feel. 

There seemed to be no cattle around (medieval or modern) but lots of sheep and some very sweet lambs. 

5 comments:

  1. Never heard of them before, so thanks for pectoral description along with verbal!

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  2. Maybe these flat slabs were broken off and transported by glacial ice millions of years ago?

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  3. Good heavens. What a fence for cattle! Talk about labor. Very interesting....

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