Photos: Gravity-defying stone sculptures at stacking championship in Scotland

On a beach in Dunbar, Scotland, over 30 participants from all over the world gathered over the weekend to create gravity-defying sculptures from rocks and stones found on the beach as part of the European Stone Stacking Championships. Only in its second year, the event is Europe’s largest championship for all Stone Stacking and Rock Balancing artists and practitioners. The overall winner of the European Stone Stacking Championship will receive financial support for flights to the World Stone Balance Championship in Llano, Texas the following year.

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Marco Montesini from Spain competes in the European Stone Stacking Championships 2018 in Dunbar, Scotland. Sculpture artists gathered in Scotland on Sunday to compete for the weighty title of champion stone stacker, in a quirky competition launched last year. (Andy Buchanan / AFP)

UPDATED ON APR 24, 2018 01:17 PM IST

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More than 30 participants from America, Spain, Italy and from around Britain converged on Dunbar, near Edinburgh, for only the second European Stone Stacking Championships. Competitors had to create the most complex and gravity-defying artistic sculptures from rocks and pebbles gathered on the town’s Eye Cave Beach. (Andy Buchanan / AFP)

UPDATED ON APR 24, 2018 01:17 PM IST

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A competitor take works on his claim to the title in the Stone Stacking Championship. “(It’s) the most ancient art form that there is,” James Craig Page, the fledgling contest’s founder, told AFP. Despite stone stacking’s lofty history, he traces the modern-day challenge to the creations of Californian stacker Bill Dan in the early 1990s. (Andy Buchanan / AFP)

UPDATED ON APR 24, 2018 01:17 PM IST

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Philip Wachmann from Austria creates his stacked stone sculpture. Stone stacking however has angered some conservationists who accuse enthusiasts of “rubbing out history” by removing rocks from ancient neolithic monuments, such as Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, southwest England. (Andy Buchanan / AFP)

UPDATED ON APR 24, 2018 01:17 PM IST

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Pedro Duran from Spain, works on his sculpture. Page launched the contest last year after organising a more local event -- the John Muir challenge -- in 2016, which was billed as the first stone stacking competition of its kind in Britain. (Andy Buchanan / AFP)

UPDATED ON APR 24, 2018 01:17 PM IST

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James Brunt of England said that he got into stone stacking seeing somebody in the south of England on a beach about seven years ago. Where other spectators saw a kind of magic, Brunt said he saw the science behind it. “I started using different materials, leaves, sticks -- whatever nature throws at me I’ll use to make artwork with.” (Andy Buchanan / AFP)

UPDATED ON APR 24, 2018 01:17 PM IST

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Pedro Duran, from Spain, was named European champion for the second year running for his stone archway, while James Brunt, 46, from the English city Sheffield, won runner up for his intricate sculpture of a rollercoaster. (Andy Buchanan / AFP)

UPDATED ON APR 24, 2018 01:17 PM IST