Delft Island colonial horse stables (Stables of Nolan): coral-limestone arches and feeding troughs?
How did 19th-century British administrator Lieutenant Edward Nolan construct the surviving military cavalry horse-breeding stables from fossilized coral rock on Delft?
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3 Answers from travellers
The historic horse stables on Delft Island were established by British cavalry officer Lieutenant Edward Nolan in the 1810s to breed riding horses for colonial military regiments. Constructed entirely from massive blocks of local fossilized coral limestone and shell-lime mortar, the complex features a long rectangular courtyard enclosed by high coral-rag walls. Surviving masonry includes heavy coral-stone mounting blocks, stone tie-posts with carved hitching holes, and long continuous drinking and grain feeding troughs carved directly from monolithic limestone slabs that have resisted maritime salt weathering for two centuries.
Surrounding the stables are extensive networks of dry-stone coral paddock walls (corallite masonry) built without mortar to enclose breeding mares.
Feral ponies roam freely through the roofless stone stable ruins today, grazing on coarse scrub beside the historic Dutch governor’s house.
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