An Australian nurse, Leigh Holland-Keen, has become only the second woman to lift Scotland’s legendary Dinnie Stones.
The Dinnie Stones are two granite boulders weighing nearly 332.5kg and named after Donald Dinnie, who carried them across the Potarch bridge in Aberdeenshire in 1860.
Only 90 men have been able to lift them since the tradition was revived in the 1950s. Only one other woman has ever lifted them – nearly 40 years ago.
29-year-old Leigh still works as a registered nurse in Townsville. She had previously come third in the under-75kg class at the 2012 World’s Most Powerful Woman competition – seen as the pinnacle event for “strongwoman competitors”.
And what exactly is a strongwoman competitor?
“Most people are familiar with ‘world’s strongest man’ competitions where they pull trucks and heavy tyres. Well it’s exactly that. Except it’s women,” she told ABC News.
While preparing to lift the stones, Leigh juggled her training schedule between full-time nursing while also studying personal training.
To prepare she borrowed some replica Dinnie Stones rings and loaded them with weights and trained in her garage three to four times a week.
Leigh said it was “a common myth that if you lift heavy weights then you’re going to look very manly and it’s not a feminine thing to do”.
“The idea that it’s healthy for your body to be stronger is slowly progressing. You feel pretty badass when you can lift heavy weights.”