Sundials

Welsh slate sundials – timekeepers to enhance your house and garden.

Working slate sundials

At the Slate Workshop in Pembrokeshire we only use Welsh slate, to make slate sundials that are useful as well as beautiful. The dials are calibrated according to their location and we take pride in them being more than just an attractive ornament. See testimonials for some of our clients’ comments.

Click on each picture to enlarge

Hand cut and sandblasted dials

Most of our dials are sandblasted. A few are hand cut. The difference is not obvious to most people unless pointed out, except with the centre compass rose star or sun, which can be more striking if hand cut. Clients quite often choose to have a sandblasted dial but with a hand cut compass ‘rose’.

Garden /Horizontal slate sundials

Our garden or horizontal sundials are designed for where they are to go. We usually only need the name of the nearest town! We make the sundial tops for you to fit on your own bases or both the sundial tops and slate bases.

We usually have some stock horizontal slate sundials in our showroom, made for 52 degrees latitude.

Wall/ vertical slate sundials

Wall or vertical slate dials usually need to be bigger, as they are read from a greater distance.

To calibrate these, we need to know both the nearest town and the inclination of the wall from true south (degrees East or West of South). The wall should be as close to south facing as possible, to get the maximum amount of useful sunlight hours on the dial.

Sundial design elements

Slate sundials can be very simple and rustic, or imposing and formal, or something in between! They can be round, octagonal or square. Wall dials can also be rectangular.

The sundial can have either Roman or Arabic numerals or show noon only. It can have a sun or star compass rose, which can be hand cut or sandblasted, or a simple textured centre. Hours only can be marked, or half hours too. There can be concentric lines around the numerals, around the compass star etc. A quotation or motto, names and dates or initials can be added to give a personal touch.

Each extra component adds to the complexity of the design.

Prices

Prices for sundials depend on whether it is hand cut or sand blasted, the amount of information and decoration on the dial and size.

We like to work closely with our clients- each piece is treated individually - so we don’t have standardised order forms.

Please contact us to discuss your requirements and we can then give you a price and delivery date for your order.