More than 150 years ago, Deeside athlete Donald Dinnie summoned all his strength and crossed the Potarch Bridge with two massive stones weighing 770lbs.
It was a feat that passed into local lore, inspiring a string of strongmen to recreate the Birse man’s storied accomplishment.
And living legends of the “Dinnie Steens” gathered at the Deeside bridge once again as the rocks returned to their spiritual home outside the revamped Potarch Hotel.
Among them was Jack Shanks, who travelled from Belfast with his son, Stevie, to the place he made history in 1973.
The policeman stunned locals when he became the first man to lift and carry the stones across the bridge, as Dinnie himself had done in 1860.
Mr Shanks sen, now 81, weighed under 12 stone when he accomplished the challenge.
Inspired by his father, Mr Shanks jun, 52, lifted the stones himself last year.
For this visit, the pair was joined by David Webster – who rediscovered the rocks – and Bridge of Don man, Jim Splaine, who lifted the Dinnie Stanes 65 times between 1973 and 1994.
Fellow Dinnie Stane lifters Brett Nicol and Bill Crawford also attended.
The men were all drawn back to Potarch by Jan and Terry Todd – Texan weightlifting polymaths who are currently making a documentary on Scottish stone-lifting.
Mrs Todd is the only woman to have lifted the stones, having done so in 1979.
The stones once sat at the porch of the Potarch Hotel until it was closed down and they were brought under the care of the Aboyne Highland Games committee.
With the lodge redeveloped, they have now been returned.
Mr Shanks jun said: “The timing of everybody being together at Potarch the moment the stones arrived was great. It was just an incredible moment.
“There was so many people that had lifted them. We all felt it. It was lovely to be a part. It is nice they are back where they belong.”
The film – which is being put together by Rogue Fitness – is being directed by Todd Sanson.
The Utah director said: “The Todds have done a great job in really bringing a lot of people together and rounding them up.
“It has been great to see how many people know about the history and the culture of the stones.
“What we’re focused on the historical culture of what was and what is Scotland.”
Terry Todd is a former Olympic weightlifter who also founded the Arnold Schwarzenegger Sports Festival on behalf of the film star.
His wife, Jan, also a former powerlifter, was once credited as the strongest woman in the world.
Together they founded the Stark Centre for Physical Culture and Sports, in Austin, Texas.
The museum is the largest repository for artifacts of physical culture in the world.
The Scottish documentary is a sequel to their film on stone-lifting in the Basque Country, Levantadores.
Mr Todd said: “I would say they (the Dinnie Stanes) are the most famous stones in the world, of the Scottish stones.
“It is not how high you lift them just that you can lift them off the ground and that is the challenge.
“Webster himself is the Godfather of all this business. He’s the one who rediscovered these stones. They were lost, they were down by the riverbank covered in weeds. He found them in the 1950s and no one knew where they were.”
