“This is what I want to do for the rest of my life” says Megan Pepper. The 22-year-old is the only female stonemason apprentice working for the Office of Public Works’ National Monuments Service.
Pepper loves the “freedom the job gives you. You’re outside all the time and you meet a lot of interesting people. You learn something new everyday with everything you’re doing. There’s never a job that’s the same. It might look the exact same but the stone could be different or the mix is completely different and it’s actually just really interesting. Sometimes you have to read the monument’s history for hours before you start working on it.”
Pepper is working on Kells Round Tower in Co Meath, which dates from the 10th century. She is learning how to repoint and rebed stone while working on the tower.
“We are remaking the cap that goes on the top of the tower; that’s all hand-shaped and hand-worked.”
RM Block
The team has to use stonemason techniques that would have been used during the time the tower was built as it is too risky to use modern power tools on such an old structure.
“To keep it the way it was originally, everything is tapped out by hand and then it’s all mixed and put back in by hand,” she says. “Power tools could vibrate stuff that doesn’t need to be moved and it could create a whole other problem.”
