Different Lifting Styles in Scottish Stone Lifting - The Flawed Notion of One “Traditional” Scottish Lift

Introduction

Scottish stone lifting was never one fixed thing. The surviving evidence points to a range of local practices. Some stones were lifted from the ground to put the wind under the stone. Some were taken to the knee, lap, chest or shoulder. Some were carried. Some were placed on a plinth, dyke, standing stone or bar. Some were thrown. The old record is uneven because much of the tradition was local, oral and only partly written down.

This means any modern discussion needs care. It is difficult to claim that one style was the only true Scottish style. The evidence is broader than that. It shows different standards in different places, with different stones, communities and local memories shaping what counted as a meaningful lift.

I have omitted overhead pressing from the historical evidence section of this article. Peter Martin states that “no lift to be remembered was ever known” to have been carried out by putting a heavy stone overhead. That is a separate research question, and one someone else may wish to test against the historical sources. This article focuses on lifting styles that are more clearly attested in the Scottish record.

Shouldering and shoulder-carrying

A clear direct shouldering example is Alexander Gunn at Loch More, Halkirk, Caithness. In Thomas Sinclair’s The Gunns, published in 1890, Gunn is remembered for:

“lifting on his shoulder and carrying a large stone”

The same account places this at the head of Loch More, Halkirk. Gunn is said to have died in 1786, aged 28, so the feat belongs to the late 18th century at the latest. This is a useful example because it gives a named man, a named Scottish location, and a clear shoulder-carry description. The source should be treated as clan history and recorded tradition, rather than a sporting record. Still, the wording is direct and shoulder-specific.
Text citation: Sinclair, 1890.

A second clear example is Clach a’ Bhoisgean, from Glen Masson, Cowal, Argyll. The account was recorded in The Celtic Monthly in 1907 and later discussed by Peter Martin. Martin explains that the old “flashing stone” translation is doubtful. After discussing the Gaelic naming issue, he writes:

“So we now have the direct translation being ‘the shouldered stone’”

This fits the 1907 account of the local custom, where:

“the youths having to shoulder it and carry it round a circle”

The associated rhyme adds:

“Every youth must shoulder thee”

This is one of the clearest pieces of shoulder-specific evidence because shouldering is built into the recorded custom itself. The men shouldered and carried the stone, while the women raised it to the knee. The evidence comes from a named district, Glen Masson, close to Garrachra House in Cowal.
Text citation: The Celtic Monthly, 1907; Martin, The Stones of the Southern Highlands.

The West Highland oral tradition around Conall Gulban also includes shoulder lifting. In the tale of the Clach nan Gaisgeach, or Stone of Heroes, associated with Beinn Eidinn, Eobhan:

“lifted it to his shoulder top”

Conall later:

“raised it on the top of the shoulder”

and carried it up and down Beinn Eidinn. This is folklore rather than a measured historical lift, so it should be used carefully. Even so, it shows that shouldering was a meaningful strength motif in Gaelic tradition.
Text citation: Campbell, 1860-62; Martin, Twixt the Stone and the Turf.

A further oral-traditional example comes from Creag Asduinn, North Uist, with the Black Stone or Clach ’ic Chaoilte. This should be cited through the Uist sennachie material preserved by Angus John Macdonald and published in The Hebridean Connection, with Julian Davies used as the modern reproduction and discussion of that material.

In the version reproduced by Davies, Manan commands the son of Caoilte:

“lift on your shoulder that black stone”

The tale later says:

“The black stone has not moved from the spot where it fell from the shoulder of the son of Caoilte”

This is best treated as oral-traditional/folkelore evidence, rather than a straightforward historical lifting record. It is still another clear shoulder-specific example attached to a Scottish stone-lifting tradition. Or at very list that the notion of a shoulder lift existed long ago. 
Text citation: MacDonald and Fergusson, 1984, as reproduced and discussed in Davies, 2025.

Chest or breast-high lifting

Chest-height lifting also appears clearly in Scottish sources. At Balquhidder, the Puterach was described by James Logan in 1848 as having been:

“raised from the ground, breast high, which is the trial”

That wording suggests that breast height was understood as the recognised test in that account.
Text citation: Logan, 1848; Martin, The Puterach and Pudrac Stones.

At Cromarty, on the Black Isle, Hugh Miller referred in My Schools and Schoolmasters to becoming strong enough to:

“raise breast high the ‘Great stone of the Dropping Cave’”

This is another clear 19th-century reference to a stone lifted to breast height.
Text citation: Miller, 1854; Martin, The Great Stone of the Dropping Cave.

There is also remembered local practice from Glen Roy, Lochaber. In the account Old Man of the Stones, Angus Campbell described a good lift as one where the stone was:

“simply lifted to the chest.”

So chesting has strong evidence too. In some places it appears to have been the accepted or good lift. In others, the standard was different.
Text citation: Campbell, Old Man of the Stones.

Plinth, standing-stone and loading lifts

Some stones were tested by placing them onto another stone or fixed object. The Puterach and Pudrac at Balquhidder are a good example. James Gow’s 1887 account says the Puderag was:

“lifted and placed on the top of the standing stone”

This was a loading feat. The target was the standing stone itself.
Text citation: Gow, 1887; Martin, The Puterach and Pudrac Stones.

The Wallace Putting Stone at Sheriffmuir, near Blackford, gives a related type of test. One account says a strong man could:

“lift it in his arms to the top of the standing one”

and a very strong man could:

“toss it over”

Again, the standard here is a fixed object, with a stronger version of the lift involving throwing the stone over it.
Text citation: Monteath, 1887, quoted in Martin, Twixt the Stone and the Turf.

Carrying stones

Carrying is also well attested. The best-known example is the Dinnie Stones at Potarch, Aberdeenshire. Donald Dinnie’s own account says:

“I carried them across the bridge and back, some four to five yards”

This is a different kind of test again. The feat is lifting ringed stones and carrying them for distance.
Text citation: Donald Dinnie account, TheDinnieStones.com.

Carrying also appears in wider Gaelic strength discussion. Martin’s summary of the Conall Gulban story identifies different grades around the Stone of Heroes: putting wind under the stone, raising it into the lap, shouldering, and shouldering while walking. That matters because it shows a graded way of thinking about strength, with different lifts carrying different levels of difficulty.
Text citation: Martin, Twixt the Stone and the Turf.

Air-under, knee and lap lifts

Some traditions treated the basic successful lift as raising the stone enough to put air or wind beneath it. In the Conall Gulban story, the standard for the Stone of Heroes is that the lifter could:

“place the wind between it and earth”

This was still a meaningful lift. It was simply a lower grade of lift than lap, chest, shoulder or carry.
Text citation: Campbell, 1860-62; Martin, Twixt the Stone and the Turf.

Martin’s broader point is useful here. He writes:

“Lifting the heavy stone therefore is not strictly defined by any assertion that it has to be lifted to a certain height or level”

That fits the wider pattern in the evidence. The lift depended on the stone, the place, the local custom and the purpose of the test.
Text citation: Martin, Twixt the Stone and the Turf.

'Traditional' and 'most common' are not the same thing

There is also a useful distinction to draw between what appears to be common in the surviving evidence and what can properly be called traditional. At present, chest or breast-high lifting may be the most common style in the patchy, often circumstantial and anecdotal evidence base that survives. That does not mean it was the universal traditional lift.

Tradition was local. It was stone by stone, glen by glen, estate by estate, village by village. If you lived near Loch More, Halkirk, in the time of Alexander Gunn, then the local memory of strength was not an abstract national rule about chesting stones. It was Gunn “lifting on his shoulder and carrying a large stone at the head of Loch More, Halkirk” (Sinclair, 1890). In that community context, shoulder carrying formed part of the local tradition.

The idea of one ubiquitous “traditional” Scottish lift is therefore flawed. The sources show several styles: air-under, knee, lap, chest, shoulder, shoulder-carry, loading, carrying and throwing. Martin’s point that lifting the heavy stone was “not strictly defined” by one height or level is important here (Martin, Twixt the Stone and the Turf). It fits the evidence far better than any attempt to make one lift the national standard.

There is also a conservation issue that needs to be treated honestly. Some historical practices would be unsuitable, or even irresponsible, if repeated literally today. If a stone was known as a 'putting stone', that does not mean modern lifters should throw it around a graveyard in the name of tradition. If a stone was once loaded to a dyke, wall, bar, plinth or standing stone, that does not mean it should be repeatedly smashed onto old masonry. If a stone was once carried into a building, that does not mean it should now be dragged into a bar or up castle steps, risking damage to the stone, the setting, or the property around it.

This is where the idea of “traditional” can become too blunt. A chest lift may sound more traditional in a broad Scottish sense, but a badly controlled chest lift and drop from height may be more damaging than a less traditional lift performed with care. For example, I would rather see an overhead press of the Inver followed by a controlled lowering down the body and the lightest touch to the ground, than a “traditional” chest lift dropped with no control. Ross Mackintosh is a great example of a lifter who can press safely but the likes of myself have absolutley no business trying to press stones over 100kg. Example below of good practice with crash pad and I assure you a slow and contolled lowering of the stone: 

                                                

That does not mean overhead pressing should become the standard. It simply means that control, judgement and preservation matter. Modern lifting has to balance historical respect with the practical need to protect the stone, the setting and the lifter.

“Traditional” should therefore be applied case by case. The better questions are: what is known about this particular stone, this particular location, and this particular historical practice? Can the lift be done safely, respectfully and within the lifter’s ability? If so, a controlled lift to the chest, shoulder, carry, or another historically connected style can still honour the wider tradition.

The simplest position is this: respect the stone, respect the place, understand the history, and lift within your ability. Tradition should guide modern lifting, but it should not be used as a blunt rule that ignores the variety of the old Scottish evidence.

Overall conclusion

The surviving evidence points to a varied Scottish stone-lifting culture. Chest lifting has good support. Loading to a plinth or standing stone has good support. Carrying has good support. Air-under, knee and lap lifting also appear in the wider Gaelic material.

Shouldering is present as well. It is rarer in the written record, but it appears in several different forms: Alexander Gunn at Loch More, the Clach a’ Bhoisgean custom in Cowal, Peter Martin’s discussion of “the shouldered stone”, the Beinn Eidinn folklore, and the North Uist Black Stone folklore.

The safest conclusion is simple: Scottish stone lifting included different lifting styles. The records are too incomplete to say exactly how common each style was across Scotland. The tradition was local, oral, varied and close to being lost. What survives gives us fragments, not a complete rulebook.

Bibliography

Campbell, J. F. Popular Tales of the West Highlands, Vol. III, 1860-62. Used for the Conall Gulban, Beinn Eidinn and Clach nan Gaisgeach material.

Campbell, Angus. Old Man of the Stones. Used for the Glen Roy chest-lift account and “classic Ultach style” wording.

Davies, Julian. “The Story of the Black Stone of Creag Asduinn.” Scottish Stones of Strength, 2025. Used as a modern reproduction and discussion of the Hebridean Connection material.

Gow, James. “Notes on Balquhidder.” Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. XXI, 1887. Used for the Puterach/Pudrac standing-stone lift.

Logan, James. McIan’s Highlanders at Home, or Celtic Gatherings, 1848. Used for the Puterach breast-high reference.

MacDonald, Aonaghus Iain / Angus John Macdonald, and Fergusson, Donald A. The Hebridean Connection: Eachdruidhean agus Sgeulachdan bho Sheanachaidhean Uidhist / Accounts and Stories of the Uist Sennachies. D. A. Fergusson, 1984. Used as the underlying Uist sennachie source for the Clach ’ic Chaoilte / Black Stone tradition.

Martin, Peter. The Great Stone of the Dropping Cave. Used for the Hugh Miller and Cromarty breast-high account.

Martin, Peter. The Puterach and Pudrac Stones. Used for the Balquhidder lifting-stone tradition and discussion of the Puterach/Pudrac.

Martin, Peter. The Stones of the Southern Highlands. Used for Clach a’ Bhoisgean, Peter Martin’s “the shouldered stone” discussion, and the Celtic Monthly quotation.

Martin, Peter. Twixt the Stone and the Turf: An Understanding of Gaelic Strength and Stone Lifting. Used for wider discussion of Gaelic lifting categories, shouldering, carrying, throwing and the caution around overhead lifting.

Miller, Hugh. My Schools and Schoolmasters, 1854. Used for the Great Stone of the Dropping Cave reference.

Monteath, John. “Dunblane Traditions”, 1887. Used for the Wallace Putting Stone reference, as quoted in Martin.

Sinclair, Thomas. The Gunns. Inverness: Northern Counties Newspaper and Printing and Publishing Company, 1890. Used for Alexander Gunn at Loch More, Halkirk.

The Celtic Monthly, Vol. 15, 1907. Used for the Glen Masson and Cowal Clach a’ Bhoisgean account.

TheDinnieStones.com. Donald Dinnie material. Used for Donald Dinnie’s account of carrying the stones at Potarch.