Masonry retaining walls, made of dry or mortared joints, are the most common type of retaining structure in France, comprising over 50% of the national road network’s retaining walls [1]. Despite their longevity, often exceeding 100 years, these structures remain vulnerable to accidental loads that can lead to failure, especially under dynamic conditions [2]. Traditionally, their stability under such loads is evaluated using simplified analytical methods at the Ultimate Limit State or more complex numerical methods that require considerable data and computation time for displacement analysis. This study introduces an innovative approach combining yield design theory [3] with the work-kinetic energy theorem [4] to assess the permanent displacements of dry-stone retaining walls subjected to dynamic loads. Previous work [5, 6] used the yield design approach to evaluate the stability of masonry structures under static loads. This paper extends it to identify the critical stability threshold under dynamic loads. Hypotheses are proposed regarding the post-failure behavior of the structure, assuming material plastification. The work-kinetic energy theorem is then applied to model the structure’s motion after failure. The results are compared with numerical simulations, with the discrete element method showing particular relevance for modeling masonry behavior. A future development of this work will need to consider reduced-scale experiments to validate the model predictions, confirm its accuracy, and identify the limitations of the analytical approach.