Easdale, one of the Slate Islands, in the Firth of Lorn, which has a permanent population of just over 60 people, welcomed more than 2,200 people from 27 countries to this year’s event.

However, in a major embarrassment for the competition, a number of world-class contestants were retrospectively disqualified for “stone doctoring”, BBC News reports.

The competition’s rules provide that only naturally-formed slate stones can be used – but some were “suspiciously circular”, organiser Dr Kyle “Toss Master” Matthews said.

However, he insisted that lessons had been learned from the incident and organisers would “move on to an even greater event next year”.

Organisers told The Sunday Post that the alleged cheaters “admitted their transgressions” and “deeply apologised” after the event.

They warned that future incidents of stone doctoring could lead organisers to impose pre-selected stones on all skimmers – taking away the joy of selecting their own.