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Comment by mauvehaus | Hacker News Reader

Visiting Scotland, I was told that the apparent lack of stability is what keeps the sheep from pushing against the dry stone walls there.

Apocryphal or true? No idea. It's intriguing to think that sheep have a sense for stable construction, and that people have learned to deceive it.

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Not true. A well built fieldstone wall is massive, we estimate around .5T per linear yard when we build one to 4ft. with cope stones. Sheep will not knock it over, but cattle can. For that reason, through-stones are allowed to protrude a few inches on normal pasture wall for sheep, but you should make them flush on walls for cattle because the cows will try to use the protrusions to scratch themselves and could knock the wall over.

A well built wall doesn't appear unstable. One of the tests is whether or not you can see any daylight through the wall, and the wall should easily support the weight of several people leaning against it.

They had no problem escaping through them in Clarkson's Farm.

I really enjoyed that show, but I have no confidence that production assistants weren't gallavanting about at night acting as gremlins.

Clarkson is first and foremost an entertainer, and I'm sure he'd agree with that assessment.

Clarkson is the sort of guy who would have both friend and foe knocking over his walls just to mess with him.

Nonetheless, sheep farming can be incredibly difficult, and sheep love to assert just enough independence to be annoying.

the adjoining farm next to our backgarden had sheep that was obsessed with getting into my backgarden - no idea why. they would jump over the 5ft wall with barb on the top.

When we complained he move the sheep to another field, they escaped that field and entered our back garden through a totaly different way - through our front garden. eating loads of our plants - I can understand the pain Clarkson went through (made up or not)

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