A historic feat of strength
While writing the article for liftingstones.org this month, I hit the dreaded writer's block. I just about loathed the words I was writing (when I managed to write any at all); Maybe I need some inspiration? In any case, instead of publishing something I'm not proud of, I've decided to push it back until I am.
I've still been busy, and there's plenty going on in the world of stonelifting. So here's your list of topics – feel free to jump around to the ones that interest you most.
- Dinnie Stones facts
- Why are the rings on the Dinnie Stones different?
- Number of Dinnie Stones lifts by year
- The younger lifters
- Stonelifter spotlight: Sandra Bradley
- Donald Dinnie Day 2024
- Dennis Kohlruss visits Scotland
- Quick-fire updates
Dinnie Stones facts
Although there's no new article this time, I put together a few posts on the liftingstones.org Instagram page while promoting the fundraiser for Donald Dinnie Day 2024. In case you missed them, here's what I wrote about:
Why are the rings on the Dinnie Stones different?
My curiosity often gets the best of me and I dive into some niche rabbit holes researching small, mostly inconsequential things. The vast majority of these rabbit holes don't lead anywhere too interesting, some become a paragraph in an article, and other bits just don't really fit anywhere.
Back when I wrote about the Replica Dinnie Stones, I was researching the differences between the original stones and the replicas. One of the sections of the article explains the differences between the rings on the large stones, but I don't think anyone has discussed the different rings on the original stones before. So after digging up my research and checking my sources, I pieced together a timeline of the rings.
The short story is that when the late David Webster rediscovered the stones in the 1950s, he found that the ring on the large stone was missing, and the current ring is a replacement. If you're interested in the longer story, you can read it on Instagram.
Number of Dinnie Stones lifts by year
Every December, I compile the year's official Dinnie Stones lifts (based off the info on thedinniestones.com) to update the number of lifters on the Dinnie Stones article.
I spent a little time updating the way I handle the data I maintain because it was slightly tedious before. Those changes also meant I could play around with the data more.
One of my first experiments was to plot a chart showing the number of Dinnie Stones lifts by year, highlighting the huge spike in popularity after Rogue's Stoneland documentary in 2016 and the beginning of The Gathering as an annual event in 2017.
There's a lot of cool stuff we could do with the data, like finding patterns and presenting lifter stats. If you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to reach out.
You can view the original Instagram post here.
The younger lifters
Few people know that Donald Dinnie was only 23-years old when he carried the stones the width of Potarch bridge. So my final post in this mini series was highlighting those lifters who achieved a full lift at (or below) 23-years old. So far, there's only been 10 lifters (excluding Donald Dinnie) to achieve the feat.
For the photos and details, you can view the original Instagram post.
No one has matched Donald Dinnie's feat of carrying the stones at 23-years old (or younger)! If you're a young – and exceptionally talented – athlete in search of a historic feat, this might be the one for you.
Stonelifter spotlight: Sandra Bradley
When I see an increase in traffic to a stone's page on liftingstones.org, it can mean a few things. Perhaps someone famous mentioned the stone, or a publication linked to it, or a video went viral.
When I noticed the Dritvík stones article gaining some attention, I checked Instagram to see what was going on and found what I was looking for immediately. You've probably already seen it, but how could I not share this monumental feat of strength?
Sandra Bradley made history and became the first woman to lift the 154kg (340 lb) Fullsterkur stone on Djúpalónssandur beach in Iceland! Please go and watch the video if you haven't.
The four-time Germany's strongest woman says she spent two hours searching for the best way to position and grip the stone that's double her bodyweight. The time was well-spent considering she's cemented herself as a legend.
As of writing, the post has over 60,000 likes. Unfortunately, when posts reach a wider audience like this, trolls tend to crawl out of the woodwork attempting to discredit the lift. However, the stonelifting community understands how groundbreaking this lift is, and a comment by Liefia Ingalls says everything about its significance:
I will always be proud of you, most glorious Schmetterling, but today you have lifted us all a little bit higher. Congratulations!
A few days later, Sunny went on to carry the Húsafell stone several meters in another extraordinary feat of strength, remarking:
I am more confident than ever, that it is possible to make it all the way around the pen.
And I can't wait for her to do it!
Sunny is making her way to Potarch in August for The Gathering to lift the Dinnie Stones and compete in the Jan Todd games.
Donald Dinnie Day 2024
Donald Dinnie Day The Gathering VIII is approaching fast with just about two weeks until the event opens!
Last time, I mentioned helping to raise money for The Gathering's fundraiser with profits from the Dinnie Stones enamel pins.
Throughout the campaign, I promoted the pins a little more than usual with the Instagram posts, and I'm delighted to announce that sales from the pins raised a total of £150!
If you bought a pin during the campaign, I want to say a huge thank you once again for your support – I couldn't be more grateful. Raising almost 10% of the fund's goal far exceeded my expectations, and that money will help the organizing committee put on the best show possible.
In response to the fund's donations, Stevie Shanks said:
The support from the stone lifting community has just blown me away. I hope I can repay everyone's faith in us by delivering a killer show this year.
In the lead up to Donald Dinnie Day, Stevie has continued his Instagram series talking to Brett Nicol about the events taking place across the men's and women's competitions:
- Gathering Tales, Part 1 – Event 1 of the Donald Dinnie Games
- Gathering Tales, Part 2 – Event 4 of the Jan Todd Games
- Gathering Tales, Part 3 – Event 1 of the Jan Todd Games
- Gathering Tales, Part 4 – Event 3 of the Jan Todd Games
- Gathering Tales, Part 5 – Event 2 of the Donald Dinnie Games
- Gathering Tales, Part 6 – Event 2 of the Jan Todd Games
- Gathering Tales, Part 7 – Event 4 of the Donald Dinnie Games
The day's program is available on thedinniestones.com, though I won't link to it directly because it has been updated a few times. Visit the site for the most up-to-date version.
Donald Dinnie Day kicks off at midday on Sunday 4th August. Beyond the two stonelifting competitions, there will be several flights of athletes attempting the Dinnie Stones, Guinness World Record attempts with the Nicol Walking Stones, and a display of the Inver Stone.
In another huge moment for Donald Dinnie Day, there will be a livestream from Potarch on officialstrongman.com! If you're not able to make it in person, the OfficialStrongman membership will allow you to watch live, and you'll also get access to the backlog of previous strongman content (the Strongman Classic earlier this month was fantastic).
Dennis Kohlruss visits Scotland
Germany's strongest man visited Scotland in June, and of course he visited some of Scotland's most well-known stones!
Dennis thoroughly documented his trip on YouTube for his almost 120,000 subscribers, bringing Scottish stonelifting to thousands of German-speaking fans.
In his first stonelifting video, the group visit the Saddlin' Mare, the Chieftain's Stone, the Macgregor Stone, and the Ardvorlich stone.
And in the next stonelifting video the Inver stone, the Barevan stone, the Auchernack Stones, and finally the Newtonmore stone all make appearances.
There's a full YouTube playlist where you can watch all of the videos Dennis published from his trip to Scotland. The videos are mostly in German as you'd expect, but they're still cool to watch. As a side note, if Dennis had English subtitles available on his videos, I believe his content would reach a far wider audience.
Quick-fire updates
- I've archived newsletters from April 2023, March 2023, and February 2022.
- I've spent some time this month updating some stones on the liftingstones.org map.
- I'll be at The Gathering in Potarch this August.
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Dinnie Stones enamel pin
Inspired by the world’s most famous lifting stones, this liftingstones.org original pin is perfect for showing off your love of stonelifting by pinning it to your gym bag, clothes, or anywhere else.