The stones flow also

Not the beck only,
Not just the water -
The stones flow also,
Slow
As continental drift,
As the growth of coral,
As the climb
Of a stalagmite,
Motionless to the eye,
Wide cataracts of rock
Pour off the fellside,
Throw up a spume
Of gravel and scree
To eddy and sink
In the blink of a lifetime.

Norman Nicholson


High up in the Cumbrian North Pennines, outside Brough, on the Middleton road and just before the Durham border, there is a Sheepfold. One of Andy Goldsworthy's renovated Sheepfolds, it looks from the outside like any other sheepfold, all on its own on the hillside, but inside is a surprise.

On three of the beautifully renovated walls of the fold are sculptures, built into the fabric of the wall. These are they.

Goldsworthy was always fascinated by river stones and in particular the balance between flat ones and rounded ones. So when it came to reclaiming this particular fold, close to Deadman Gill, he used such stones to incorporate permanent sculptures in the walls. I love the way they are hidden away inside the walls of the fold. There is no sign or any other indication that they are there. I wonder how many people have come across them by accident when out walking.

For anyone really interested, I have added three more pictures to my folio. They give a better idea of how the sculptures have been incorporated into the walls of the fold. In one of them, you can see how his sculptures mirror the way long stones were used originally to create openings in the wall.