Stone piles near driveway?

April 10, 2010 5:52 PM

In my area, a few houses have little piles of rocks (pyramid shaped) near the entrance of their driveways. The only houses I've seen with them are mansions, so it does make one wonder.... Are these religious or what?
posted by ascetic to Religion & Philosophy (11 answers total)

Response by poster: Sorry, didn't mean to make it sound like the piles being religious had anything to do with the income of the owner haha....
posted by ascetic at 5:53 PM on April 10, 2010

Perhaps there's been a fad in the area for cairns?
posted by kmennie at 5:55 PM on April 10, 2010

Response by poster: They look like those, but they are only about a foot tall, or less...
posted by ascetic at 6:08 PM on April 10, 2010

It might be so the plow truck can find their driveway when it snows? I don't have that problem as my driveway is only 20' long and ends at my garage door.
posted by fshgrl at 6:11 PM on April 10, 2010

You might find some answers in this previous question.
posted by bristolcat at 6:12 PM on April 10, 2010

I've seen people put boulders/large rocks near the corners of their driveway and always assumed that it was to prevent people from parking or doing a u-turn on the edge of their yard and destroying the grass. But that's typically in neighborhoods where there isn't a curb, although I guess I've seen it on curbs occasionally as well.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:35 PM on April 10, 2010

It may help to know where you're seeing these.
posted by dfriedman at 6:36 PM on April 10, 2010

You're in NY, is that upper NY? That's effectively New England, so the field stone/plow thing seems likely.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:15 PM on April 10, 2010

Cairns to mark the path. Usually I see them on trails while hiking but in this case it might just mean that my driveway is the correct path to home for me.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:44 PM on April 10, 2010

Also used to mark where the driveway is in snowy climates and on unlit streets at night (although usually there is a pile on each side of the entrance in that case). A less classy version is a reflector on top of a thin metal pole.
posted by qwip at 12:55 AM on April 11, 2010

If the driveway opens onto a busy road, adding rocks makes the driveway more visible which minimises the 'surprise factor' when a car emerges and can help slow down the traffic.

In a street with lots of driveways you don't really need this, but on a long stretch of road with one driveway - typically a mansion, then a few rocks can make a big difference (especially when you are in a low slung sports car.)
posted by Lanark at 6:58 AM on April 11, 2010