My name is Jon Cegielski, and I am a stone lifting enthusiast. I travel all over Europe and all over the US picking up historical, and modern day lifting stones. What I love about it the most is that it doesn’t involve chasing a trophy, but rather, going after legends and stories that are of great importance in countries like Iceland, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, and hopefully, one day, the US!! I’ve gone to many places, and lifted many stones, but there are some in particular that stand out to me more than others and have a special place in my heart.
One of those stones is “ultach Ghilleasbuig Ailein Heisgeir”, located on the island of Uist in Scotland. What makes this one of the most special ones is, for starters, that I didn’t even have it planned for my trip as I was unaware of its existence. It wasn’t until my friend Jacob Hetherington found out that I was coming over to Scotland for a trip and reached out to me in regards of the stone. Jacob had been researching it for sometime now, and was kind enough to share with me all the information he had and suggested that I go try to give it a lift, and that’s what I did. What was so memorable about it wasn’t just the fact that I was the first person to lift it in modern times, but my interactions with other individuals on my journey towards the stone.
One of those people being Calum Maclean, who I ended up meeting on the ferry because he had noticed me from my social media posts going through Scotland. Like what were the chances! He then joined me for my amazing, but very short time on the island and we both went off searching for the supposed whereabouts of Ghillieasbuig. Expecting it to be an Easter egg hunt, it turned out that Jacob’s suspicion of the whereabouts were exact!
Once reaching the stone, I thought it was gonna be way too mighty for my capabilities, but after hitting all the other stones on Uist, I had a sense of confidence, and being the stubborn lad that I am, I knew I had to give it a couple goes. I tried about 5 or 6 times and nothing, zilch, Nada, the stone didn’t Budge.
I was feeling a little disappointed, but one thing about me is that I never give up. Deciding to give it one more go, I got into position, locked in hard, and it came off the ground! I was ecstatic and full of adrenaline after that. Everything about this trip was great, the stones, Scotland itself, all the friends I made, and the people I ran into. That’s what makes this all worth it! The community is what it’s all about.
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