Bluestone vs. Sarsen

Main Difference

The main difference between Bluestone and Sarsen is that the Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties and Sarsen is a type of sandstone block found in the United Kingdom

• Bluestone

  Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:

  basalt in Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand

  dolerites in Tasmania, Australia; and in Britain (including Stonehenge)

  feldspathic sandstone in the U.S. and Canada

  limestone in the Shenandoah Valley in the U.S., from the Hainaut quarries in Soignies, Belgium, and from quarries in County Carlow, County Galway and County Kilkenny in Ireland

  slate in South Australia

• Sarsen

  Sarsen stones are sandstone blocks found in quantity in the United Kingdom on Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire; in Kent; and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset, and Hampshire. They are the post-glacial remains of a cap of Cenozoic silcrete that once covered much of southern England – a dense, hard rock created from sand bound by a silica cement, making it a kind of silicified sandstone. This is thought to have formed during Neogene to Quaternary weathering by the silicification of Upper Paleocene Lambeth Group sediments, resulting from acid leaching.The word “sarsen” is a shortening of “Saracen stone” which arose in the Wiltshire dialect. “Saracen” was a common name for Muslims, and came by extension to be used for anything regarded as non-Christian, whether Muslim or pagan.

• Bluestone (noun)

  any of various bluish or grey building stones.

• Bluestone (noun)

  any of the smaller stones made of dolerite found in the inner part of Stonehenge.