Stenoch Stones
The Stones are part of the wider Thirlmere Stone Circuit - The Valley of Styans. The entire circuit consists of the Thirlmere Feat Stone, the Stenoch Stones, the Nags Head Stones, the Daleshead Stones and the Wythburn Church Stones.
Weights
Coward Stone – 88kg / 194lbs
Hebson Stone – 116kg / 255lbs
Walker Stone - 131kg / 288lbs
Location
View on Google Maps
View on What3Words - ///legroom.cringe.surround
The Challenges
Coward Stone – All pillars (break ground, to lap, to chest, to plinth, to shoulder, to overhead).
Hebson Stone – Break ground, to lap, to chest, to plinth, to shoulder.
Walker Stone - Carry for distance around the Stenoch enclosure. As part of the challenge, the Stone must be placed down under control following the carry. A drop of the stone discounts the carry attempt.
Name Origins
The name Stenoch (or Steneck or Stennacke) is thought to derive from Old Norse, as the valley shows evidence of Viking settlement dating back to medieval times. It comes from the words "Steinn" (stone/stony); and "Nōk" (secluded corner/place).
“The Secluded Place of Stone" could be no more apt a name for this spot that was chosen to place three modern Lifting Stones. The three stones placed here are named after the last families who farmed at Stenoch - Walker, Hebson and Coward.
Stones Placement
Stones sourced from the surroudning brook and placed by @conortoms_strongman.
History
In the peaceful and ancient valley of Thirlmere lies Stenoch, an old farmstead that existed at the head of Thirle Water in Wythburn Parish. The Valley once described in 1772 by William Gilpin as:
"every way suited to the ideas of desolation, which surround it. No tufted verdure graces it's banks, nor hanging woods throw rich reflections on it's surface: but every form, which it suggests, is savage, and desolate. It is about two miles in length, and half as much in breadth, surrounded by barren mountains, and precipices, shelving into it in all directions"
Although all this was before the area was flooded in the 1890's by Manchester Corporation, to create the Thirlmere Reservoir that exists there today. Destroying almost all evidence that this sleepy Lakeland valley was once inhabited.
The ruined remains of the Dale once thought of as desolate; now harbour their own beauty in this wild landscape changed forever by industry and greed.
A quiet glade on the banks of Thirlmere, surrounded by trees and looked down on only by Helvellyn. Walking down to the Stones, you pass by the ruins of old Stenoch Farm and the impressive sheep folds, once used to gather the fells of its hefted flocks of Herdwicks.
Walker -131kg (Cumbrias walking stone. The ideal stone and shape to be walked for distance, complete as many laps of the enclosure ss you can - But place the stone down, a drop discounts the carry).
Hebson - 116kg (a proper challenge for the average person to attempt, a natural stone plinth lies close by that begs for it to be raised to).
Coward - 88kg (a smooth and rounded stone ideal for shouldering. Don't let is name fool you though, deriving from a keeper or 'warden of cows', this slippery stone will put up a fight.
