Popularly known as the musical stones of Skiddaw as these musical stones were found in the town of Skiddaw, North Cumbria, Great Britain by Joseph Richardson in the year 1790. Woah! that’s a long time back. Geologically these stones are known as Hornfels.

He made a Lithophone or a xylophone out of these stones, a playable instrument. Boy would I like to hear someone perform on this. Joseph and his 3 sons did perform on it and had considerable success with their performance in Great Britain at that time, going on to be a toast of Europe with their exhilarating performances for the local crowd, the well to do as well as the royals. They were all set to tour America as well but Robert, the youngest son and the most talented of them all fell ill and died of pneumonia. The tour was abandoned and the band was not the same anymore. Subsequently the instrument was given to the Keswick museum and is still there for all to see and play.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inWKcmVEwvs]

Hey! I did come across 3 percussionists performing on the rocks! 🙂

Check this out:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0QtUNwixgY]