Symposiums
2025 Festiposium: McMullen House
Our second phase of the McMullen wall rebuild will see us rebuilding another 100′ section on the opposite side of the gate to complete the restoration of the Front road portion of this wall. Please join us September 27th to 29th for this weekend of events. we will have a dry stone wall competition at the Stella lodge on
Friday, followed by a casual social at the McMullens.
Saturday and Sunday, members and anyone who has taken a walling workshop with us, is welcome to join on the rebuilding of this wall. All skill levels welcome (however, this is not an introductory workshop). We will also be having a stone carving workshop led by Ottawa’s Danny Barber. A boveda demonstration is also in the works and Saturday evening, we open up to the public and will have talks and presentations by various members, and our guest wallers from Greece.
Camping at the McMullens is free if you wish to pitch a tent. if not, various accommodations can be found on the island.
Please sign up on the main page for all of these events so we can be sure to be ready to welcome you with copious amounts of food for the weekend.
2022 Symposium: McMullen House
The Build
Rebuild a 100′ section of single skin wall that was in bad state of repair and a little too close to the road. Stone from the wall was reused and the extra stone required was used from the old barn foundation (which was dry laid) but had been buried a few years ago.
Here are some pictures:
McMullen Build
The Speakers
Dr. Audra McMullen
Professor of Communications at Towson University in Maryland
- Audra (also our host), lead a discussion on her research on dry stone wallers “Creating Civic Communication Through Dry Stone Festivals”
You can watch her presentation here:
John Scott
Waller, Instructor, Heritage Masonry Specialist
- The wall at McMullen House is heritage designated. John Scott, lead a discussion on heritage restoration. He focussed on aspects of restoration such as understanding the character of a structure, recording as-found prior to restoration, general aspects related to heritage, and working with agencies (like Parks Canada).