Musical Stones

I love these stones in Keswick Museum. They make a beautiful sound. They are made from Hornfel, which is a slate that has been super heated by close contact with a volcano, giving it special properties.

A brief extract from Wikipedia:

'The Musical Stones of Skiddaw are a number of lithophones built across two centuries around the town of Keswick, northern England, using hornfels, a stone from the nearby Skiddaw mountain, which is said to have a superior tone and longer ring than the more commonly used slate.

The first documented lithophone from Keswick was built in 1785 by Peter Crosthwaite, an eccentric inventor who became interested in the musical properties of the local stone. However, this kind of instruments became widely known only decades later, when in 1840 Joseph Richardson, a local stonemason and self-taught musician, built a larger, eight-octave lithophone with which he and his sons toured the UK and Europe giving numerous concerts, including one in London for Queen Victoria.'

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My trip continues very successfully in terms of increased physical activity and I really value all the comments etc on my mountain 'selfies'!