Photo: Holiday Cottages

The Unusual British Traditions That Should Have Their Own Olympics

United Kingdom Maps + Infographics
by Henry Miller Nov 28, 2017

In Great Britain, you don’t shot put, you wang Wellies. Or at least that’s what this infographic, put together by HolidayCottages.co.uk, suggests. Below is a list of some downright bizarre (eating stinging nettles?) traditions and games and where you can find them on the island. After a quick look over, we think you will agree: it is time for us to organize the Great British Olympics!

1. Waen Rhydd Peat Bog, Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys

Swimming in a bog… competitively?

2. Five Oaks, West Sussex

Racing lawn mowers has pretty broad appeal.

3. Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester

In which competitors knock stacks of pastries off a ledge with blood sausage.

4. St Ives, Cornwall

Having an entire town of teenage boys fight over a chunk of silver sounds like the surest way to break everything.

5. Inveraray, Argyll and Bute

It’s sort of like tossing a massive javelin, but you get to wear a kilt.

6. Upperthong, West Yorkshire

Damn right it’s time to consider chucking rain boots haphazardly across a field a sport.

7. Olympia, London

It’s like normal horse racing, except everything is tiny and adorable!

8. Swaton, Lincolnshire

Gently tossing an egg to your friend sounds like a wonderful way to spend a weekend afternoon. I’m in!

9. Tetbury, Gloucestershire

Because running between pubs with a sack of wool used to be a sure way to impress a lady.

10. Peterlee, County Durham

Using a hardboiled egg to break someone else’s hardboiled egg is such an endearing competitive sport that I almost cried watching the 2013 finals.

11. Marshwood, Dorset

It’s like the Coney Island hot dog contest except competitors are just straight-up eating stinging nettles. So, you know, totally insane.

12. Fenny Bentley, Derbyshire

Just taking footsie to a whole new absurd, borderline Salvador Dali surrealist level.

You absolutely rock, Great Britain.

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