MORE than 70 stonemasons from across the world are preparing to gather in York Minster’s Dean’s Park later this month to compete in a stone carving festival.

Craftspeople from India, Iceland, Norway and Cyprus will join ones from the UK in a festival during the weekend of August 18 and 19.

They will carve on the theme ‘All creatures great and small’, with the finished pieces auctioned at the end of the festival.

The weekend follows the annual Minster stoneyard open day on Friday August 17, and comes before an auction the following Wednesday of historic stone removed from the cathedral during conservation work.