OP here. My kid is a new Dr Who fan. An old photo of the cast of Local Hero popped up in one or another of my feeds, with a 1982 photo of an impossibly young Peter Capaldi. Kid loved the photo but had no idea about the movie. I found a good photo of Pennan on the Wikipedia page, amazing place. The article mentions lifting stones, which was unfamiliar. Google brought me to your site, which is very appealing, as many have noted. I’m a non-tech in the tech industry, so I like to contribute outlier things here, usually resulting in crickets, sadly, but in this case it resonated. Huzzah!
It's a good article but it could use a bit of background as to what "stonelifting" is, exactly, for those who aren't already familiar. From what I gather, this is more about lifting stones in public places than, say, using stones in your own personal gym? With an emphasis on historic stones? There's mention of a "stonelifting tour" as well, would love to understand more of what that's about.
Those are fair points. I guess the audience I wrote this article for is people who are already aware of stonelifting and who are planning to go and lift some stones. I've added a TODO to make it a little more clear in this article.
>From what I gather, this is more about lifting stones in public places than, say, using stones in your own personal gym? With an emphasis on historic stones?
Exactly!
A stonelifting tour is when you visit a place (often a country like Scotland or Iceland) to lift various historic stones on the same trip. Sometimes that's with other lifters.
What should I be picturing for a lifter going for one of these stones? Should I be picturing a lone man stalking across a scottish moor, to test his strength with a single lift, alone and with no witnesses? Groups of athletes in lycra wearing lifting belts? Organised competitions with cheering crowds?
How accessible is stone lifting to genetically smaller people? I strength train seriously but I'm never going to have the build or strength of the much bigger men who I usually see doing powerlifting and strongman.
Like the other reply, stones range in sizes and weights. Even if you're not massive, there are plenty of more accessible historic stones. You obviously tend to hear about the heaviest and most challenging ones that giants lift.
One of the most inspiring (and insane) feats of strength I've ever seen was Chloe Brennan's lift of the Replica Dinnie Stones (weighing 333kg (734 lb)) in 2022. She weighed ~64kg (140 lb): https://youtu.be/CRaEALQSxTI?&t=434
The historic stones are probably out of reach. I've heard of a range of stones (don't remember the name/location) where the lighter ones may be possible. With those it the claim is "X lifted all 7 forgot-the-name stones".
As a sport, strongman has atlas stones (cement spheres) going down to sizes that most people could lift to shoulder. However, as a sport, the bulk of the training to get strong enough to lift a stone doesn't involve actually lifting a stone. It's a very welcoming group, though, with most competition directed inward toward the self rather vs against another person.
Strongman (which stone lifting is related to) is an extremely accessible and welcoming sport. We have men, women, and children of all ages and sizes, and stones (and other implements) appropriate for everyone. Not everyone completes, but in competitions there are classes, so you can compete against other people your own age, size, gender, level of experience, and even level of disability if applicable. There are also historic lifting stones of all sizes, not just massive ones that require a giant to lift!
Note also that is not unheard of for people to "blank" i.e. not complete any reps of a particular event. It's often said that if you don't (particularly at the lower levels) you're not challenging yourself.
It's also bad form to enter a novice comp if you already have a 300kg deadlift.
My experience with stones seems to indicate that they come in an almost unlimited variety of sizes. There are boulders that are so large no human can lift them all the way down to stones that can be lifted by a small child or even a dog. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a stone with a weight appropriate for whatever level of difficulty you want to target.
It's a lovely website - I have bookmarked it for future reference! I have been to the Potarch cafe many times, for some reason I never noticed the stones...
Thanks! You'll definitely notice them now. If you go on the first Tuesday of the month, you'll see a group of lifters attempting to put themselves in the history books.
There's also a whole day event in August on the green with some stonelifting competitions! In the last few years, it's attracted some elite strongmen and strongwomen too.
Have you considered adding a highscore board or something similar? Athletes can add a profile, then post an image proof that they've lifted certain stones. It won't be fool proof, but could further increase interest by adding a progress bar and/or achievements :)
The map shows a concentration of stones in the UK, particularly in Scotland. Is that representative of the stonelifting community? Or maybe just an artefact of it being an English-language website?
A bit of both. Scotland definitely has a concentration of stonelifters in the community. But there are plenty of stones that I haven't added to the map (in Iceland, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, and Japan especially). I try to branch out to other countries and cultures as possible.
That's a really difficult question because the Husafell is so different to a barbell - along with the fact you have to carry it 35m. There are aspects of grip and wingspan involved, too.
I say this as someone who hasn't touched the Husafell in Iceland (yet), so take it with a pinch of salt: From what I've seen, if you haven't hit a ~200kg (440 lb) squat and a ~250kg (550 lb) deadlift, you might struggle with the Husafell stone.
I've been (mostly lurking) on Hacker News for about a decade, so I visit pretty often. I only caught it this time because of a traffic spike notification.
I'm don't know of any events in South East Asia - although I wouldn't be surprised if there were some. Japan, China, South Korea, and India all have stonelifting cultures, so it wouldn't be odd to see it elsewhere in Asia.