I like strange phenomena. I also like meeting interesting people.
So the other day I enjoyed talking to Darren Yeadon, a stonemason and quarryman from Goodwick. Darren has hand-crafted an incredible series of sculptures from Preseli bluestones – the same source for the inner circle of Stonehenge. With the physical help of Martin and Rob from our horti team, these have now been carefully laid out in a circle along the Broadwalk – adjacent to the Preseli bluestones in our Rock of Ages display.
Come and have a look because they look great and have a rather strange physical phenomena that you can try out.
Darren has called his sculpture collection Bluestone Healing Circle. He has a theory about the rocks giving out energy and told me that when he splits bluestones, the newly exposed rocks feel warm. I didn’t expect to hear that. He then told me that the stone gets stronger and deeper in colour as time goes on, normally stones tarnish or become duller, but bluestone gets better, even after years of being outside.
He asked me to feel the shiny parts of the sculptures – the areas that he’s worked really hard to polish up. Strangely, they feel warmer than other parts of the rock.
So what’s going on? Darren thinks it might be down to zircon crystals in the stone To an experienced stonemason like Darren, these look like tiny black sugar cubes – you’d probably need a hand lens or microscope to see them. They vary in colour but in bluestones, they are blue. Darren told me that there is a constant chemical reaction within these crystals that is locked in, started off perhaps by light, making its colour deepen and explaining the warm feel. Perhaps our distant ancestors discovered this and felt what they thought were its unique healing energies.
Let me know if you can feel the warmth of these wonderful stones, or even better, if you feel healed in some way. Or you could just tell me if you think this is just a load of nonsense!