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Glacial erratic boulders are a natural and prominent part of Finnish landscape. They have had also an important role in national traditions. Nowadays, when constructing, boulders are conserved and left in their places around buildings. Many of the major erratics are conserved as geosites and included in interpretative trails. Boulders are also used in landscaping in many Finnish towns. However, many times boulders were not transported to a place by a glacier, but installed by man. The aim of these installations is aesthetic and practical. Boulders are used to limit parking areas, decorating the place at the same time. One of the examples is the parking area of a famous furniture shop at Espoo. Boulders were installed along lines towards a crop surrounded by forest. In residential areas, they are used as driving obstacles for walkways. This practical application has been used since 1950's.
When used in landscaping, boulders are installed in groups, half-immersed into the ground and surrounded by well-rounded glacio-fluvial pebbles. Examples can be found at Espoo, Helsinki, Kuhmo, Iisalmi and Kärsämäki, where boulders decorate margins of streets and walkways. At Espoo, they are found even beside a road under a bridge, and outside of an shopping center. Strongly angulous boulders were installed in a "cubistic" fashion. A similar, but more massive example is found surrounding a gas station.
Erratics are mainly local, extracted directly from the morainic ground exposed by excavation of construction sites, or transported from gravel pits.
These installations have been designed and proposed by private consultants, approved by the municipalities and installed by a construction company. Private examples are also found at courtyards in several places (e.g. Smbönders, Eno, and Mäntsälä).
This stonescaping is made with rough, undesigned boulders, composed mainly by K-feldspar granites, but also quartzites, granodiorites, amphibolites, migmatites and gneisses are used, reflecting the Precambrian bedrock of the country. The dimensions of boulders are usually around 0.5 - 1 m. Their rough naturality espresses a primitive, monolithic, and brutal aesthetics that fits well with Finnish landscape and Finn's minds. This kind of boulder landscaping is an application of geoaesthetics, bringing geology and stonescaping closer to the people in their everyday lives.
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