Liam Knight Was the Only Competitor to Reach the Back Wall of the Easdale Quarry and Won the World Stone Skimming Championships
A geologist was on duty to verify stones after competitors were disqualified last year for grinding island slate into suspiciously circular shapes.
The World Stone Skimming Championships were held on Easdale Island off the west coast of Scotland on 5 September 2026. Competitors skim into a flooded slate quarry, and the winner is the one who sends a stone furthest before it stops.
Liam Knight, from North Carolina, was the only entrant to reach the back wall of the quarry, a distance of 207 feet or 63 metres. Abbey McDonald of New Zealand won the women's title.
More than 400 competitors took part in front of around 2,000 spectators, with more than a fifth of the field travelling from outside the United Kingdom and record numbers of women and under-sixteens entered. The rules require a stone of Easdale slate no more than three inches across, three throws per competitor, at least three bounces and a skim that stays inside the marked lane.
The championships began in 1983 after a conversation in a pub and have been held annually since 1997, apart from the pandemic. After the 2025 event, competitors were disqualified for grinding island slate into suspiciously circular shapes, so the tossmaster Kyle Mathews engaged a geologist, Luisa Hendry, to verify that stones were genuine.