Stepping stones or stepstones are sets of stones arranged to form an improvised

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...

that allows a

pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, by wheelchair or with other mobility aids. Streets and roads often have a designated footpath for pedestrian traffic, called the '' sidewalk'' in North American English, the ''pavement'' in British En ...

to cross a natural watercourse such as a creek, a small

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

; or a water feature in a garden where water is allowed to flow between stone steps. Unlike

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

s, stepstone crossings typically have no spans, although wood planks or stone slabs can be placed over between the stones (which serve as the

pier A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, b ...

s) to improvise as low-water bridges. Although their historical origin is unknown, stepping stones, along with

log bridge A log bridge is a timber bridge that uses logs that fall naturally or are intentionally felled or placed across streams. The first man-made bridges with significant span were probably intentionally felled trees. The use of emplaced logs is now ...

s, are likely to have been among the earliest means of crossing inland

bodies of water A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ponds, wetlands, or more ra ...

devised by humans. In traditional

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...

s, the term ''iso-watari'' refers to stepping stone pathways that lead across shallow parts of a

pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

, which work like a bridge-like slower crossing. Using ''iso-watari'' for crossing ponds, or shallow parts of streams, one can view the

aquatic animal An aquatic animal is any animal, whether vertebrate or invertebrate, that lives in a body of water for all or most of its lifetime. Aquatic animals generally conduct gas exchange in water by extracting dissolved oxygen via specialised respirato ...

s and

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

s around or in the pond, like

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

turtle Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...

s, and

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which i ...

. Today, stepping stones are commonly used by mountaineers and hikers as a makeshift way of crossing uncharted or unanticipated streams and torrents. They may occur alongside a ford.

Historic stepping stones

The Drukken Steps in the Eglinton Woods of North Ayrshire in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

were a favourite haunt of

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

and his companion Richard Brown, while the two were living in Irvine from 1781 to 1782. The name "Drukken" steps derives from a person's gait as they stepped from stone to stone whilst crossing the Red Burn. Seven or more stones were originally set in the Red Burn which was much wider than in 2009. Burns himself used the Scots spelling "Drucken" rather than "Drukken". The ruins of the Drukken Steps are in the Eglinton Country Park. File:SteppingStoneBoltonAbbey.jpg, Stepping stones in

Bolton Abbey Bolton Abbey Estate in Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, England, takes its name from a 12th-century Augustinian monastery of canons regular, now known as Bolton Priory. The priory, which was closed in the 1539 Dissolution of the Monasterie ...

File:Stucco stone from footbridge.JPG, A stucco stone from The Drukken Steps, stepping stones in

File:Stepping Stones - geograph.org.uk - 5528.jpg, The stepping stones in the Rothay,

Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

, England File:Stepping_stones.jpg, The stepping stones across the Mole at the foot of Box Hill,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England

In popular culture

A deadly version of stepping stones involving glass tiles is featured in the 2021 South Korean series '' Squid Game'' as the fifth game played in the series.

References

External links

Stepping stones on the River AyrStepping stones on the Annick Water
{{Garden features Footbridges Stone bridges Garden features Stonemasonry Chinese gardening styles Japanese style of gardening River crossings

Historic stepping stones

In popular culture

See also

References

External links