The stone of Westerklief that turns around

The largest and best-known glacial boulder on Wieringen lies near Westerklief. The ice brought it from Scandinavia during the ice ages. The names Westerklief and Oosterklief come from a cliff coast: when Wieringen was still an island, the sea gnawed at the boulder clay. The landscape is two push moraines, formed about 150,000 years ago in the Saalian, with boulder clay, stones, gravel, sand and loam.

According to tradition, the stone turns around when it hears the church bell strike. Children were therefore told not to pull silly faces nearby. If the dog barks, the bell strikes and the stone turns round once, your face will stay like that for ever.

It was also said that it sat immeasurably deep, all the way to China, and that it used to grow. The stone has been set upright. Who did that, and when, is not known. When it was moved recently, the part below ground turned out to be only a few dozen centimetres. So it did not reach to China. Of a boulder on Texel it was said that it would reach as far as England.