Dry Stone Walls are Important Wildlife Habitats
When we’re in a field or garden, building or repairing a dry stone wall, we’ll often find a hibernating toad, a masonry bee basking in the sun or a muslin footman moth larvae feeding on lichen. These friendly encounters are always an exciting part of the job, but, more importantly, they are a reminder that the wall we are working on is not only a wall, but also a rich and biodiverse habitat.
So, what kind of wildlife lives on a dry stone wall?
Just like a natural rocky outcrop, such as a cliff face or escarpment, a dry stone wall is host to a whole variety of plant and wildlife, whether as a permanent home or temporary resting place. The first plant life to colonise a wall are the lichens and mosses. Over time they break off small fragments of stone, which combine with dead material and particles to make a simple soil. This allows more plants to grow, as well as fungi. In terms of wildlife, birds, insects, amphibians and small mammals all make use of dry stone walls. This includes songbirds, spiders, snakes, slow worms, toads, voles, mice, stoats, weasels and even rabbits. Some use the gaps and crevices in a wall as shelter, including for nesting and feeding. Others occupy the coping stones as viewpoints for resting and hunting. Dry stone walls also function as wildlife corridors, connecting and allowing passage for insects and animals between other habitats.
However, no two walls are the same, and a number of factors will influence the ecology of a dry stone wall.
Each wall is a specialised environment and a range of intersecting factors will influence its ecology. For example, its geographical location in the UK will dictate the kind of stone it is made from and different types of stone encourage different species of plantlife. In the Cotswolds, our alkaline limestone supports a particular range of plants, mosses and lichens as opposed to a wall built from more acidic stone like granite or slate. The altitude and climate of the area in which a wall is located, as well as its orientation can also influence its ecology. Different parts of the same wall might even function as micro-habitats, for example, if one side faces north and the other south this can lead to drastically different habitats on either side of the wall. As you might imagine, within a dry stone wall there will be some dryer sections providing well needed shelter, but there will also be localised drip points offering damper conditions for those that need it. The build, condition and age of a wall is also a significant factor in habitat diversity.
That's why we believe dry stone walls can contribute towards rewilding, conservation and habitat regeneration.
Despite their clear and important ecological function, dry stone walls are rarely built with nature in mind. Their primary purpose is usually a more human, utilitarian one – to define boundaries between fields, property and gardens – with the environmental benefit merely a happy by-product of this. However, our aim at Dry Stone Habitats is to combine the traditional craft of dry stone walling with a purposeful ecological approach to create walls that intentionally and directly benefit Britain’s wildlife. All dry stone walls can be good for wildlife, but we believe in creating walls that are specially designed to enhance rewilding, environmental regeneration and conservation.
If you are interested in learning more about the ecology of dry stone walls and our approach, click here to read more of our blog posts on the topic.
Key References and Further Reading:
- S. Adcock (2024). A comprehensive guide for spotting wildlife in dry stone walling across the UK (https://www.tcv.org.uk/media_hub/a-comprehensive-guide-for-spotting-wildlife-in-dry-stone-walling-across-the-uk/. Date Accessed: 15/06/2026)
- A. Brooks and S. Adcock (1999). Dry Stone Walling: a practical handbook (Doncaster: BTCV)
- A. Darlington (1981). Ecology of Walls (London: Heinemann Educational Books)
- J. Presland (2007). Conserving the Flora of Limestone Dry Stone Walls (Sailsbury: Wiltshire Natural History Publications)