The world's strongest brothers have been left to train in a car park after they were evicted from the warehouse they had used since the start of the year.
Luke and Tom Stoltman were told to pack up their things by the landlord who owned the facility in Invergordon last month. The duo had been granted permission to use the space on Cromarty Firth Industrial Park by a third party who were renting the property - but after owners the Bannerman Company sold the other half, they were told they could no longer gain access.
They've now back training at their gym space and using the car park outside for their moving events - but they are using the blow as motivation to move along plans to open up a training facility of their own in the town. Luke and Tom Stoltman's impressive deadlifts, log presses and keg tosses have scored them an array of trophies and accolades through the years.
Tom, 28, became the first ever Scot to win the World's Strongest Man competition in 2021 before retaining title this year - while Luke, 37, won the Europe's Strongest Man award in 2021 and came runner up in 2022.
Speaking to the Record, Luke said: "It's frustrating that my brother has won the world's strongest man two times and is probably the greatest strength athlete that we've got and we are forced to train outside in the car park.
"It was such a brilliant place to train - but it's no hard feelings to the guys. It's not a dig on the Bannerman's by any means. They are renting out the second half of the warehouse so they had to ask us to vacate the premises so they can do what they are doing. That's completely fine. It's business at the end of the day.
"They have found someone to rent out the second half of the warehouse and we weren't actually renting the area we were using. There's a local company that rent the warehouse from The Bannerman that said they could facilitate us.
"Tom and I don't actually need a lot of space, but unfortunately the manager that runs it came in and saw our stuff and wasn't happy, so we were given a few days to move our stuff and that was that."
The Stoltmans are the only brothers history to reach the finals of the World's Strongest Man. They has been using the facility in Invergordon since the start of the year when the company renting the warehouse said the pair were welcome to use the space.
But after the bitter blow of being turfed out, they are now back training in the car park as the prepare for the prepare for the prestigious US events The Shaw Classic and the Rogan Invitational in Austin.
Luke said: "We used to train outside the gym that we have got in the car park area, so we are currently back there.
"It's not the best. We're heading off to America tomorrow for the Shaw Classic then the next prep starts as soon as we return for the Rogan Invitational in Austin at the end of October, which is the most financially rewarding competition in the season.
"It's going to be a bit of a hinderance. Training in the car park is not ideal - especially with the Scottish weather - but we used to train in the gravel in my garage for a long time.
"We're going to try to modify a bit of the gym that we have got and make that suffice for now, then use the car park for our moving events. It's not great but we will just push on and learn to adapt."
The brothers are using the setback as motivation to fuel plans to open up a facility of their own for both themselves and the community of Invergordon.
Luke added: "The warehouse was so good, it made us do as well as we did over the last few months. But maybe that is on us for getting too comfortable and this will push us now to really smash it and do something special for the area.
"We believe everything happens for a reason so we are just going to push on with our drive to do something for the community and build this facility that encompasses everything to do with fitness and strength.
"This won't just be a place for Tom and I to train, this will be a place for everyone to do CrossFit, bodybuilding, powerlifting, olympic lifting and we want the young ones to be able to come in and train too, as well as creating a safe space for folk with sensory issues.
"It has maybe been pushed forward a bit due to the fact we don't have anywhere to train - but we are wanting to buy somewhere and make it our own.
"We could operate out of anywhere in the world if we wanted to, but we want to stay in Invergordon. We want to set up this facility that will employ local people, that's one of our core values."
Luke says the pair will now begin planning to look into building their facility in the town and they hope to have it up and running in two years time.
He added: "I said last year our three year plan is to build this facility, so two years is my goal. If we want to build a proper facility, something special, I think we have to give ourselves a bit of time and learn to be patient.
"It's unfortunate that this has happened - our events training hasn't been the best for our competition. We had our strict training plan and it all crumbled down - but we don't let anything that gets thrown at us get in our way.
"Tom grew up with autism and now he's the two time world's strongest man - adversity is something we know all about.
"If the warehouse isn't an option we will just have to build one of our own."
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