Abstract: A method of providing a foundation support in unstable ground includes digging a hole into the soil until a stable substrate is reached, erecting column shuttering, back-filling the soil around the column shuttering, and casting a cementitious mix into the cavity defined by the column shuttering to form a column extending upwardly from the stable substrate. A footing is formed at the bottom of the hole e.g. by pouring a settable cementitious mix into the hole. Footing shuttering can be provided e.g. in the form of an inverted frustoconical shell or a hemi-spherical shell, or formed from bendable sheet material, shaped to an appropriate form and secured together e.g. by stapling, or it can be made up of trapezoidal panels which are assembled to form a flat topped hollow pyramid.