The Royal Ashburn Golf Course
A sunny spring morning greeted us at The Royal Ashburn Golf Course in Ontario. Our project was to build a Cairn near the green. It was a great pleasure to see interest from the golf course in a building technique that has roots in the country that invented the game. This would be the first time I personally built a Cairn; an experience I was greatly looking forward to.
Constructing something of this size requires a bit more planning than a wall. For one thing, as the Cairn narrowed, our working platform became smaller and smaller. If we had been going much higher than the 11’ 6” that we did, it was obvious we would either had to change the batter to be more gradual, used scaffolding or made the base wider.
As the construction progressed, my thoughts went to the Broch builders. Irwin Campbell’s video on the subject makes reference to difficulties in stone placement as you rise higher since you can not see from an adequate angle. Even with our Cairn, much smaller than a Broch, that issue became evident after seven to eight feet in height. Taking the time to climb down, check the perspectives and stone position is both time consuming and important. I soon found myself seeing with my hands as we worked from the top and that in itself was a good lesson to be taken away from the experience. As always, working with John is both a pleasure and chance to learn. No matter what job I work on with John, I find it to be an opportunity to improve my skills under his guidance. Our combined excitement about building the Cairn was fuel for our creativity and energy. As usual, it can be hard to actually stop to rest or eat. John talks about being in the “Zone” and if you have ever been there, you know that stopping is just something you do not want to do. Throughout our progress, we were continuously making creative decisions and adapting the idea as needed. I think of this as “on the rocks creative thinking”.
The higher the Cairn grew, the more attention we began to illicit from the nearby Golfers. I smiled often as I caught them distracted from their games watching the work or simply admiring the structure.
Some of them, I am sure, were thinking that’s a lot of hard work. They would be right. Honestly, there are only a few other things I could think of doing that are more enjoyable. Working with stone, challenging your mind and having a tangible result at the end of a day all make for a great work experience.
At the end of the project, John and I stood atop the Cairn. We had a great sense of accomplishment and pleasure from the experience. Not to mention how spectacular the view was.
