The man on a mission
While it's no longer completely dark at four in the afternoon, January has been cold and stormy here in the UK. Spring is still a long way off. Luckily for me, the start of the year hasn't dragged like it normally does.
We're back to the normal format, so here's your list of topics – feel free to jump around to the ones that interest you most:
- Map and directory updates
- The Cumbrian man on a mission
- McGregor Stonelifting Games 2025
- Winter stonelifting in New England
- Quick-fire updates
Map and directory updates
Since the very first version of liftingstones.org I've been handling stone data for the map and stone directory in the same way – effectively a single (long) file that I manually edit whenever I need to change anything.
It's a crude system. And it was fine when the first map had less than 20 stones. But now we're keeping track of almost 200 locations (with plenty I've yet to add), it's incredibly tedious to do anything. As a result, I ended up procrastinating whenever I had to update info.
I won't bore you with the technical details, but I decided to update the system towards the end of last year to fix the issues and improve the map and directory.
Here are the good parts: It's now incredibly easy for me to update data. If I have information at hand, I can add a new stone to the directory and map – and have it live on the website – in just a couple of minutes. Even better is that I can add draft data (when I'm researching a stone for example) and make it visible on the site when its ready! So no more digging through research to extract the info after the fact.
The directory is better as a result, too – stones now appear grouped by country, and within the country group, stones are in alphabetical order. Here's a quick comparison from the top of the table:
Countries are arbitrarily ordered starting with Scotland and expanding out from there. Historic and contemporary stones now intermingle, too.
You may have noticed that the 'Liftable' column now uses symbols (✓ ✕ ?) instead of text, improving clarity.
With all these changes, it should be much quicker and easier for you to find the stone you're looking for in the directory.
For me, the benefits are already showing: I've started adding more weights in pounds for my American friends, map popups are receiving richer information, and I've added more than 30 stones (with a few dozen still in draft) since the update!
If you have any feedback on the directory or map, feel free to reach out.
The Cumbrian man on a mission
You may remember Calum Stott from his recent guest article on the Lonton Egg and the Teesdale Feat Stone. Earlier this month, BBC Cumbria aired a video on the local evening news featuring Calum and his efforts to revive stonelifting in the north of England. If you haven't seen it, the video is available to watch on the BBC News website.
The piece captured regional and even some national attention. Calum subsequently appeared on the radio to talk about his experiences.
Stonelifting has appeared more frequently in mainstream media recently. It wasn't long ago I featured another local report by BBC Scotland on Gemma Doherty who took up stonelifting and participated in the McGregor Stonelifting Games.
It's easy to see how positive news stories showing interesting people and their niche interests – especially one as unique as stonelifting – can captivate an audience and pique their curiosity. I've also noticed that these stories have a domino effect where producers see stories like these and decide to pitch similar pieces, so that kind of momentum is fantastic for the stonelifting community.
McGregor Stonelifting Games
Jamie Gorrian's McGregor Stonelifting Games series of competitions has a number of dates in the calendar this year, and there are still a few spots open if you're interested in competing. I've heard great things about the events – especially the first-timer- and novice-level competitions – so if you've been on the fence about competing, seriously consider signing up (particularly for the women's competitions which have a few more spaces available).
Jamie also shared a post looking for sponsorships:
We are asking if anyone knows any small, big or inbetween businesses or individuals that are willing to jump onboard and help with Sponsorship for 2025
If you or your business could take advantage of the promotion, reach out to Jamie.
Dinnie Stones attempts 2025 nearly fully-booked
It's hasn't been long since the Dinnie Stones attempt dates were announced for 2025, and there are only a few places left!
If you've been procrastinating on booking a place, you may be out of luck unless you're prepared to lift in March (or on Tuesday, when the first lifts of the season take place).
Having said all that, if you're desperate to attempt this year, reach out to Stevie by following the Set up your lift instructions on thedinniestones.com and see if you can get a reserve spot – it's not unusual for people to drop out.
Winter stonelifting in New England
As I browsed through Instagram the other day, I saw a post from New England Stonelifting featuring a few newbies trying stonelifting for the first time outside an old stone church. It's cool to see people with no stonelifting experience not only giving it a go, but braving unpleasant weather on top of that.
I believe the trip was as part of a group outing organized by Jrt who runs the New England Stonelifting project, and it looked fun! There were countless stones to pick and choose from, making it ideal for groups with different experience levels. And one of the things I love about this type of stonelifting is that you can just kind of play.
There's a map of curated contemporary stones in New England if you're interested in more. There are similar maps for other regions of the US that other people are compiling, which is amazing to see.
Quick-fire updates
- The "Permission required" label no longer appears on the map popup when a stone is not liftable.
- I've updated the styling of the page number navigation on the Articles list.
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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.