At the Potarch Cafe & Restaurant in Aberdeenshire, Scotland there are two gigantic, oblong rocks. Combined, they weigh over seven hundred pounds. To a normal person, the rocks don't look like much of anything: an unremarkable feature at a quaint Highland eatery like a potted plant or welcome mat. But each year some of the strongest people from across the globe make the pilgrimage to Aberdeenshire specifically for the giant hunks of granite. They spend years of their lives training with the hope of simply picking them up and putting them down again.
The Dinnie Stones of Scotland are legend for serious lifters. Originally used as counterweights during the maintenance of the nearby Potarch Bridge, the boulders were affixed with metal rings for better handling during construction. In 1860, Scottish strongman Donald Dinnie, who toured the world completing feats of strength, picked up the 733-pound rocks barehanded and walked them 17 feet across the width of the bridge. Since that time only five men have been able to recreate Dinnie’s original feat.
More recently, strongmen have been picking up the stones and holding them for time. As of 2019, approximately 170 lifters—including four women—have successfully hoisted the Dinnie Stones. The record for time held is just over forty-five seconds.
I first became aware of the stones when my friend Steve of Bang Fitness began prepping to lift the Dinnies. Steve runs an amateur strongman class where the group often shares tales of big lifts and strength records in order to distract us while we’re heaving sandbags or perfecting a sled push. For Steve, chasing the Dinnie Stones gave some much-needed focus to his workout program and served as a benchmark for a life spent getting strong.
"I’m getting older and that comes with the knowledge that some strength may start to go. I’m never going to be able to press a four hundred pound log, but here is something heavy that only a handful of people in the world have been able to lift," said Steve. "And that’s enough to get me motivated when I train."
The pandemic put Steve's trip to Scotland on hold, but watching his build-up to the Dinnie weight was equal parts inspiring and terrifying. I conceptually understand how much 700 pounds is, but watching someone move even close to that weight felt witnessing a real-life magic trick. Steve would lift over six hundred awkward pounds on rings, and I'd instantly think: how is this possible?
According to Stevie Shanks, an Aberdeenshire resident and musician who runs the official dinnie stones website, that kind of reaction is why people have been drawn to the big rocks for decades. Shanks became aware of the Dinnies at eight years old, after watching his father hoist them for the first time. It created a lifetime obsession with big lifts, and dreams of becoming a father/son duo who had both picked up the stones, just like Donald Dinnie and his dad had may have done in the 1800s. Shanks took “45 years to get round to it” mostly because training for that type of strength takes a lot of work. If you're not adequately prepared for what trying to pull that kind of weight can do to the body, you could end up with a serious injury. Any attempts at the Dinnies have to be booked weeks in advance; before you're allowed to book you have to show proof of a lift (of any kind) of more than 661 pounds.
After a lull in lifters due to the pandemic, Shanks expects many people to be making the pilgrimage to Aberdeenshire to attempt the lifts this year. Watching people successfully lift the Dinnie Stones is one of his favorite things; he's still getting a sense of awe from the whole ordeal. Towards the end of our interview, I asked whether or not it would possible for a person like me—an amateur lifter of okay strength, weighing about 180, with a lot of enthusiasm—to ever lift the stones.
“Dad and I were both very light when we lifted the stones—weighing around 155 pounds. Jim Splaine was only 144 pounds when he did it,” Shanks said. “The stones weigh 321 and 41l pounds, which is very heavy—but it's the grip that presents the biggest challenge. But it is possible.”
I had been expecting him to say no. Better get training.
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