Software built to last.
We design and build robust, modular systems — web platforms, mobile field apps and embedded device backends — engineered to stand up year after year. Our deepest experience is in environmental and agri software: assessing land and habitat, and the schemes that run on that data. But the way we build holds in any domain that has to keep working.
What we build
Platforms that hold
Web platforms, dashboards and reporting tools on solid data models — clear to use, and built to be maintained for years, not abandoned after launch. Survey and assessment systems are home turf.
Built for the field
Apps that work where the work happens — offline by default, GPS-aware, syncing clean structured data back the moment a signal returns. Made for surveys, inspections and anything done away from a desk.
Maps you can draw on
Interactive maps that aren't just for looking at — draw and edit boundaries, mark points of interest, and flag the areas that need attention. Built on Mapbox GL, Leaflet or Google Maps over a PostGIS core, so we can pick the right base map for each project — or give users a toggle to switch it themselves.
Solid by design
Sensor and device backends designed to run unattended — modest, observable, and resilient by design for when the network or the power can't be relied on.
How a build goes
Scope
We start with the work — who does it, where, and what “done” looks like — then size the smallest thing worth building first.
Build
Robust, modular, and in the open. You see working software early and often, not one big reveal at the end.
Field-test
We put it in front of the people who'll use it, in the conditions they'll use it — and fix whatever reality finds.
Maintain
Software that's used keeps changing. We stay on to keep it sound — patched, supported, and yours.
Built mortarless. Built to last.
A dry stone wall holds for centuries with no mortar — just well-chosen stones that interlock and carry their own load. We build software the same way.
Modular, interlocking
Systems built from well-chosen parts that carry their own load. Swap a stone without taking down the wall.
Built to last
We optimise for the maintainer five years out. Boring, legible technology beats clever fragility every time.
Simple on purpose
Fewer moving parts: less to build, less to break, and less to pay for down the line. Simplicity is the best value for money there is.
Quick to deliver
Well-chosen, boring tools get a working thing in front of you sooner. Faster timelines and lower running costs aren't a trade-off — they're what simplicity buys.
True to the field
Software shaped around how the work is actually done — on a hillside, off-grid, in the rain — not around a tidy demo.
No mortar, no cracks
The structure holds because the engineering is sound, not because something's quietly papering over a gap.
Simple is faster — and cheaper to run.
Fewer moving parts means a lower bill to build, a lower bill to maintain, and a working thing in your hands sooner. We keep things simple on purpose — value for money isn't a trade-off against quality, it's what sound engineering buys.
Selected work
A scheme that scores farmland on the quality of its habitats.
Assessors walk the parcels and capture surveys on a phone with no signal; back on the web platform they draw and adjust habitat boundaries on an interactive map, scores are computed against PostGIS geometries, and the whole lot becomes the reports the scheme runs on. One coherent system, from the hillside to the habitat report — the kind of platform we build end to end.
- PLATFORM
- Web dashboard · iOS/Android field app
- DATA
- PostGIS · parcel & habitat geometries
- MAPPING
- Interactive maps · draw & edit boundaries
- SURVEY
- Offline-first capture · photo evidence
- SCORING
- Habitat assessment · automated reports
- SCALE
- Thousands of parcels · multi-year
Runoff-risk & catchment mapping
Interactive mapping that flags where water and sediment leave the land — drawn and measured against catchment boundaries, then turned into prioritised, mappable actions.
Reporting & data exports
The unglamorous backbone: turning years of structured field data into the spreadsheets, documents and return files a scheme actually has to file.
A small firm on the west coast
drystoneworks is a small software firm in Co. Clare, on the west coast of Ireland. We build durable web, mobile and embedded systems — most often for the people working on land, habitat and environmental quality, where software has to survive bad signal, hard weather and years of real use.
It's run by James — so the person who builds your software is the person who answers your email and keeps it running. We take on a small number of projects and stay with them, long after launch. That's the whole idea: software built to last.
- Run by
- James
- Based
- Co. Clare, Ireland
- Works with
- Clients anywhere
- Best at
- Environmental & agri
- Stack
- Go · Flutter · PostGIS
Asked & answered
Do you maintain software after launch?
Yes — it's the point. Most of our work is long-lived, and we stay on to patch, support and evolve it. We'd rather build something we can stand over for years than ship and disappear.
Who owns the code?
You do. We build in the open and hand over everything — source, infrastructure and documentation. No lock-in, no black boxes.
Do you only do environmental and agri work?
It's where we're strongest, but no. The way we build — robust, modular, maintainable — suits any domain where the software has to keep working.
Where are you based? Do you work remotely?
Co. Clare, on the west coast of Ireland. We work with clients wherever they are — the west of Ireland is home, not a limit.
How do you price a project?
We scope the smallest worthwhile first piece, give you a clear estimate for it, and go from there. No surprise invoices.
Have something that needs building to last?
Tell us what you're working on and how it gets done day to day. We'll tell you, plainly, what it would take to build it well.
Or email [email protected] directly.