They were a necessity at one time, in the period when sections of the dykes were fenced to contain cattle and horses.

The Oxford Canadian Dictionary defines them as an “arrangement of steps allowing people but not animals to climb over a fence or wall.” We knew them simply as “stiles.”

I climbed over a few stiles in my day but if I remember correctly, by the late 1950s there were few to be found in the upper area of the Canard dykes. The stiles and fences disappeared when dyking of cattle in the fall was discontinued.

The stiles I remember were made of rough-hewn lumber; definitely sturdy, they were constructed to last, and you’d never believe they could attract people or were romantic in any way.

But think again.