Sarsen sweats in damp weather
Covered, mostly in life, these stones attract water. No good for furniture… William Stukeley wrote that sarsen is “always moist and dewy in winter, which proves damp and unwholesome, and rots the furniture.”

North faces
There is a marked difference in colouring between the inner and outer faces. Rather, between the northern and southern faces. The sides that receive the least sunlight, that are damper and shadier and more rarely dry out that have the most abundant colours, and life.

And, there is a marked difference in colour during the seasons, too. Which is why I’ve picked the winter garb. During summer the sarsens are much more uniformly plain, old grey. Winter, to my eyes, are a singing joy of greens and yellows and browns and reds. More so, early mornings, when there is misty dampness and a yellow dawn, low sunlight.

A forest of lichen
But, this is great for the many plant species on the stones, which make up the biofilm. From the symbiotic partnership of two separate organisms, a fungus and an alga, that is the shrubby fructose species of lichen, like the sea ivory lichen, that adorns the upper reaches of the northern faces, out of reach of people who can easily brush them off. To the mosses, grasses and algae. Not to mention the bird poop!

And, to think that these sea ivory lichen could live hundreds of years. Indeed, the flat, ink blot, crustose lichens, could be much, much older, perhaps thousands of years old. They are the slowest growers and on Stonehenge, there are whoppers. Bonus link…

Lichenometry a method of dating that uses lichen growth to determine the age of exposed rock.

Much of the raw sarsen rock is covered in dust lichens, especially, the damper Northern facing, faces. And, no doubt, as some species of lichen like the deeper shade in cracks and the interstitial cavities of vuggy sarsen, they’re responsible for expanding fissures and holes, as much as the acidic rain. As do mosses, which retain water, and freeze, expanding and pushing. All, and bird poop, produce acids that eat into this hard rock. But, the colours!!!

A camouflage
The colours are undoubtedly pretty. But, they are a disguise. A distraction to the ancient and modern graffiti, as well as the souvenir hunters’ scars and original builders’ tooling marks. Which is why I’ve made available the metallic textured versions of these pictures in copper and
iron which tarnish and rust into the cracks and scars; as well as light, reflecting off corners and edges.