Joan has been a specialist master builder of retaining and free-standing dry-stone walls, dry-pebble paving and other dry stonework for 25 years. He normally works with another master builder and two journeymen in and around the Sierra de Tramuntana mountains. They are currently working for… the Mallorca governing council.

They build free-standing dry-stone walls for delimiting and enclosing properties with twin sides of stone blocks and a hearting of smaller stones. The width is normally some 50-70cm, depending on the stones to be found locally. Such walls are normally made not plumb but rather pitched slightly inwards.

They have also restored a traditional Sierra de Tramuntana clot de neu snow pit: a rectangular shaft of some 4×8m dug into the ground and walled with dry stone, formerly used for storing snow for months on end. Snow would be shovelled in between the walls of this great pit of variable volume, tamped down and covered with reeds for insulation. Then in the spring it would be cut into blocks and carried off to various parts of the island. There are also often buildings near such pits where mountain workers would take shelter.

Another type of traditional building they have rebuilt is charcoal burners’ huts: former shelters of charcoal burners for when they had to spend long periods in the woods tending to their sitja kilns. These are built with the dry-stone technique and consist of double-sided walls with a hearting of small stones. They have an average height of 1m, a circular plan with a diameter of 2m and a roof of sticks and thatch.

They also build other structures such as bakery ovens and sundry dry-stone features.

Joan’s projects always start with the clearing of the worksite. This involves sorting and selecting materials, separating stones to be reused and smaller stones for hearting the wall as well as undergrowth and earth. He then digs a trench to make a suitable footing for the stones to be laid upon. Walls will always start with larger stones, with smaller ones higher up. Further stones are added as required, once their faces have been shaped and dressed. The stones used are tapered so as to give the wall stability, and the face is the visible side, whereas the inner side is called the tail.

The tools Joan uses are hammers of various sizes, round mallets and point chisels, picks, mattocks, baskets and a cavec hoe, for filling the baskets.