The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. proposed that reinforcement be added in the form of fibres of various materials. Construction in earthquake-prone parts of the world is thought to benefit from this form of reinforcement, and indeed fibres (in the form of straw) are a key part of many adobe (unit-based) materials. To remain in harmony with the generally excellent environmental credentials of these materials, the reinforcement should be obtained from a natural material ideally obtained as a waste stream, so natural fibres are often chosen. While some studies have been published on the macroscopic mechanical behaviour of reinforced earthen materials, little is known of what is happening at the interface between the soil matrix and the fibres. In this paper, the authors present laboratory-based studies that attempt to fill this gap, covering pull-out behaviour of natural fibres embedded in earthen construction materials, both stabilised and unstabilised.