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 This chimney had been badly eroded by masonry bees. These are solitary wild bees that burrow into soft stone to lay their eggs and stash an individual portion of honey in a little cocoon. Unfortunately the soft local white 'Tranent Stone' suits them fine. They can easily make a little hole about 20/30mm deep and the stone regulates the temperature fluctuations between night and day for them. The dirty black face of the stone absorbs sunshine so they prefer south and west elevations. I think they must be like salmon in that they will try to lay their eggs where they were born.
 The back, south side of this chimney had been so badly affected that there was literally more hole than stone in several of the blocks of the structure.
The cope stones are enormous and very heavy and the scaffolding was entirely supported on the roof below. I decided to replace the eroded blocks in situ rather than demolish and rebuild the whole stack. We cut out and replaced one back corner then the other, and then did the same to the panel of stonework between them. Then we turned our attention to the front of the chimney and replaced several blocks that were badly weathered.
Finally I made a pair of decorative pots to match the ones that had been there originally. I was lucky enough at this time to have met up with Xwalacktun and Splash, two First Nation woodcarvers. They were over here from British Columbia in Canada to make us the fantastic Prestonpans totem pole. Like a  lot of people I was invited to help with the work. I really enjoyed two half days with them and their razor sharp wood chisels and carved the hands of the coal miner. By pure fluke a knot was in the perfect spot to become his wedding ring.
Xwalacktun put his mark, the mark of the bear for strength and protection on the top of one of the pots. It's small and 9 meters up, but in the summer evenings the sun comes in low from the north west and illuminates it beautifully.
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