Vox Solis Umbra - Latin for “the shadow is the voice of the sun”.

Vox Solis Umbra – Latin for “the shadow is the voice of the sun”.

Have you ever wondered what the large tiles set into the ground in front of Wycliffe Hall are for, or what the words written on them mean? 

This is a human sundial which was a collaborative project between the Art and Science Department several years ago. With the sun making more of an appearance recently it has made us fall in love with the dial all over again – who needs smart phones or watches when you can use the sun to tell the time for you?

Numbers are marked in Roman numerals, and you can tell the time by standing in the box for the relevant month and looking to see which number your shadow falls on. When the clocks go back the inner ring of numbers are used, while the outer ring is for Summertime.