Stonework in Agni, Corfu

Agni is a tight crescent of pebble beach and three tavernas, reached by a steep lane off the Kassiopi road. There is little flat ground here: terraces drop to the shoreline, and a courtyard often sits a stone's throw from the salt. We lay cobbled courtyards and waterside paving in Agni, working with reclaimed island cobble that already belongs to this coast.

Reclaimed cobble is the right material for a bay like this. Each stone is rounded, sized by hand and bedded close so the surface drains and the joints stay tight underfoot. This close to the water the cobble goes down in a swept bed, each stone chosen for fit rather than cut to suit, the kind of paving that wears in rather than out, and reads as if it has always been there.

Proximity to the sea sets the rules. Salt and standing water punish the wrong bedding, so a courtyard here is laid to fall, pointed where it must be and left to breathe where it can. Where a terrace edge or a low retaining run meets the cobble, we build it in local stone as one move, so paving and wall share the same line rather than fighting it.

If you are working on a courtyard, a path to the shore, or a set of steps down a terraced plot in Agni, that is the work that suits this bay. The same hands extend to paving, steps and the low walls that hold a waterside plot together, all in stone drawn from, or true to, this stretch of coast.