The Dinnie Stones

Potarch, Aberdeenshire · granite with iron rings · 733 lb (332.5 kg) together

The Dinnie Stones are a pair of granite lifting stones with iron rings set into them, kept at Potarch on the River Dee in Aberdeenshire. They take their name from Donald Dinnie, the Highland Games champion who is reported to have carried both stones, bare-handed, across the width of the Potarch Bridge in 1860.

At a glance

• Larger stone: 414.5 lb (188 kg).
• Smaller stone: 318.5 lb (144.5 kg).
• Combined: 733 lb (332.5 kg).
• Dinnie's carry: across the width of Potarch Bridge, 17 ft 1½ in (about 5.2 m), 1860.
• Where: beside the Potarch Hotel, near Kincardine O'Neil, Aberdeenshire.

Origin

The stones are said to have been chosen in the 1830s as counterweights used when maintaining the Potarch Bridge; the rings were for securing ropes. The story of the 1860 carry comes down through Dinnie's own later reputation rather than a detailed contemporary report, and some accounts give the first carry to his father, Robert Dinnie, a stonemason. The stones were mislaid after the First World War and rediscovered in 1953 by the Scottish strength historian David P. Webster, who did much to make them famous again.

Who has lifted them

There are two different achievements, and they should not be confused. Lifting the stones — "putting wind under them", raising both clear of the ground at once — has been done by several hundred people. Walking them across the bridge distance in Dinnie's manner, the larger stone gripped in front and the smaller behind, without straps, is very rare.

• First lift with straps: the British lifter and actor David Prowse, October 1963.
• First unassisted lift (no straps): Jack Shanks, 1972.
• First repeat of the bridge carry: Jack Shanks, 3 June 1973 — the first recorded since the Dinnies. Later carries over the full distance include Mark Haydock (2012), Mark Felix (2014), Brian Irwin (2017) and Pete Seddon (2019).
• First woman to lift them: Jan Todd, 1979, with straps. Emmajane Smith made the first women's lift without straps in January 2019, and Annika Eilmann the first women's lift and hold without straps later that year.
• Longest hold: 46.30 seconds, Mark Haydock, 18 May 2019.

Counts of successful lifters are kept by enthusiasts' registers (thedinniestones.com and liftingstones.org) and change every season; the figures above are the milestones they agree on.

Replicas

Close replicas of the stones have been used in competition, most prominently in the Rogue "Record Breakers" events at the Arnold Strongman Classic. The replicas are about a pound heavier, sit slightly higher and have different handles, so records on them are kept separately from those on the originals.

Attempting them

The stones remain at Potarch and are still lifted by visitors. Local arrangements for attempts change; anyone planning a serious attempt should contact the Potarch Hotel beforehand rather than rely on older information.

See also: Donald Dinnie · Stone lifting · All implements