Rocking stones (also known as logan stones or logans) are large stones that are so finely balanced that the application of just a small force causes them to rock. Typically, rocking stones are residual corestones formed initially by spheroidal weathering and have later been exposed by erosion or glacial erratics left by retreating glaciers. Natural rocking stones are found throughout the world. A few rocking stones might be man-made megaliths.
Name
The word "logan" is probably derived from the word "log", which in the Cornish dialect of English means to rock. In some parts of the United Kingdom, rocking stones or logan stones are called logging stones. The word "log" might be connected with the Danish word logre, which means to 'wag a tail'. Davies Gilbert suggested that the word "logan" comes from a Cornish expression for the movement that someone makes when inebriated:
"It may be observed that I have always used the words Loging Rock for the celebrated stone at Trereen Dinas. Much learned research seems to have been idly expended on the supposed name, "Logan Rock". To log is a verb in general use throughout Cornwall for vibrating or rolling like a drunken man, and is frequently heard in provincial pronunciation for tug, characteristic of the modem present participle. The Loging Rock is, therefore, strictly descriptive of its peculiar motion."
Examples of rocking stones
Such stones are common in Britain and other places around the world. For example, in Galicia, rocking stones are called pedras de abalar; some examples of these are along the Costa da Morte, particularly around Muxía; they include the Pedras de Barca. Pliny the Elder (23–79) wrote about a rock near Harpasa (in Caria, Asia Minor) "that can be moved with one finger, but that also resists a push made with the whole body." Ptolemy (circa 90–168) wrote about the Gygonian rock, which he wrote "can only be moved with an asphodel and remains immovable by force." There are stones in Iona called na clachan-bràth, within the precincts of a burial ground, and placed on the pedestal of a cross, and have been according to Pennant, the supports of a tomb.
A massive 90 to 95 ton glacial erratic boulder near Halifax, Nova Scotia, can still be rocked with a lever, but used to move quite easily, before a band of sailors from the nearby Halifax garrison rocked it into a more stable configuration in the 1890s, and before its base was worn down by excessive rocking in the 1980s and '90s when a park was developed around it at Kidston Lake, in the Spryfield area of the municipality. It used to be a popular picnic destination; in Victorian times, people would travel from Halifax, climb upon it and spread their lunches, while enjoying the sensation of rocking gently while seated upon the huge rock. The Pontypridd Rocking Stone in Wales is set within the middle of a Druidic stone circle. Bosistow Logan Rock is at the head of Pendower Cove (sometimes written as Pendour Cove) near Zennor, Cornwall. It apparently was discovered by an employee of the lord of the local manor whose duty it was to watch the coast. A ship had been wrecked in the cove, and while watching ensuing activity, the employee leaned against a boulder. Suddenly, a gust of wind occurred, and the boulder shifted, or "logged". The longest side of this mass of stone is about 15 feet (4.6 m), and the circumference of its biggest end is about 20 feet (6.1 m). It is thought to weigh about 20 tons.
A rocking stone is recorded near the site of Saint Bride's Chapel. The Witch's or Boarstone stands on top of the Craigs of Kyle near Coylton in Ayrshire. It weighs around 30 tons and rests upon two or three stones. A large standing stone known as Wallace's stone is recorded to have stood nearby. A rocking stone is found near Loch Riecawr in South Ayrshire. In the parish of North Carrick in the Straiton District in South Ayrshire, about a quarter of a mile to the west of the White Laise, and near the March Dyke, a rocking stone named the Logan Stone exists. The Logan Stone is a grey granite rock and rests on greywacke, and can easily be moved with one hand. It is 4 feet 3 inches (1.30 m) by 4 feet (1.2 m), by 3 feet (0.91 m) high.
There is a famous pair of rocking stones on the Faroese island of Eysturoy in the village of Oyndarfjørður. These are known as the Rinkusteinar. Local legend states that an old sorceress cursed two pirate ships that were menacing the village, turning them to stone. A chain connected to the mainland makes it easier to see the rock's movements.
Near Lugar in the Parish of Auchinleck in Ayrshire, Scotland, is the Lamargle or Lamargee rocking stone in a hollow by the Bello or Bellow Water near its junction with the Glenmore Water from which point the name Lugar Water is applied. It is made of two vertical stones, and a horizontal stone about 6 ft long, 3 ft broad, and 4 ft high. It was regarded as a Druidic monument or the grave of a Caledonian hero. This stone has often been overlooked, as the OS maps give the wrong location; it sits beside the Bellow Water above its confluence with the Glenmore Water and not on Lamargle Hill. The Kyaiktiyo Pagoda in Burma is a religious shrine built on top of a huge granite boulder that is also a rocking stone. Some masses shaped by humans also exhibit similar behaviour (sometimes unintentionally). For example, in the ruins of the Roman temples at Jerash in Jordan (the "city of 1000 pillars"), some massive pillars move back and forth in the slightest breeze.
Stones that used to move A stone used to rock on a gritstone outcrop on Warley Moor near Halifax in West Yorkshire. It had already ceased to rock when described by John Watson in 1775.
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