Lithophone at Ruskin House, Coniston

We visited Brantwood - John Ruskin's house at Coniston Water in the Lake District today.

The house contains a very interesting display of artefacts about Ruskin. I nearly blipped a pretty photo of the lake taken through his drawing room window.

However we then found the lithophone in the Linton Room. It uses 4 different types of Cumbrian rocks to create a 4-octave lithophone - a bit like a xylophone but made with slabs of rock. It was made by a team led by Professor Bruce Yardley of the University of Leeds, and has been played by Dame Evelyn Glennie (look it up on Wikipedia if you want to know more). The lighting on it was rather nice, and I liked it better for today's blip - even though it was roped off so that we could not play it ourselves!

(We could, however, play a smaller version elsewhere in the room.)