![Curling House at Craigie](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Curling_House_at_Craigie.JPG)
A curling house was used to store
curling
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...
stones, brushes and other equipment used to maintain a curling pond and play the game of curling in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
and elsewhere.
Introduction
The houses were often purely functional in character, being relatively small and often located in quite isolated places. Some curling houses were built as part of country estates and were much grander in appearance. A fireplace was sometimes present and this ensured some welcome heat for players, night watchmen, etc.
[Burns Curling Museum, Mauchline.](_blank)
The construction was of stone, brick or wood as shown by paintings or surviving examples.
Purpose
Curling stones are heavy objects, and in the days of horse transport and poor quality roads it would be easier to store stones at the site of the curling pond. Additionally the ponds needed a certain degree of maintenance to the water supply, dam, weed control, etc. Tools could be stored in the house. Sometimes a watchman was employed during the season to make sure that all was well with the pond, its ice and the curling equipment. Refreshments would be provided, such as the seemingly traditional pies and porter mentioned as being served at the
Eglinton flushes.
Scottish curling houses
Image:FingaskCurlingfromILN.jpg, A Curling House at Fingask Castle
Fingask Castle is a country house in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is perched above Rait, three miles (5 km) north-east of Errol, in the Braes of the Carse, on the fringes of the Sidlaw Hills. Thus it overlooks both the Carse of Gowr ...
, Pethshire
Image:Curling at Eglinton castle, Ayrshire, Scotland.jpg, A curling match at the flushes, Eglinton Castle
Eglinton Castle was a large Gothic castellated mansion in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, Scotland.
History
The castle
The ancient seat of the Earls of Eglinton, it is located just south of the town of Kilwinning. The original Eglinton Castle w ...
, Ayrshire, in 1860. The curling house is located to the left of the picture.
Image:CurlingHouseStewarton.JPG, A curling house converted into a dwelling. Stewarton
Stewarton ( sco, Stewartoun,
gd, Baile nan Stiùbhar ...
, Ayrshire, Scotland
Image:Curling House and Pond Stewarton.JPG, The curling house and site of the old curling pond
Decline
Easier transport, establishment of ice rinks, and other factors have in general resulted in the demise of the Curling House. Due to their generally small size, most have been allowed to become ruins or have been demolished.
Sites of curling houses
*
Beith
Beith is a small town in the Garnock Valley, North Ayrshire, Scotland approximately south-west of Glasgow. The town is situated on the crest of a hill and was known originally as the "''Hill o' Beith''" (hill of the birches) after its ''Court ...
,
North Ayrshire
North Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Àir a Tuath, ) is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east and so ...
. In 1888 Mr Patrick of Grangehill both overhauled the Curling Pond on his estate and built a large Curling House for the players.
* Craigie village,
South Ayrshire
South Ayrshire ( sco, Sooth Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir a Deas, ) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland, covering the southern part of Ayrshire. It borders onto Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire. On 30 June 2 ...
. A small rectangular brick built house with one fireplace, now roofless. The house lies in a meadow beneath the old manse; the pond is now just a wet pasture (2009).
*
Dollar, Clackmannanshire
Dollar ( gd, Dolair) is a small town with a population of 2,800 people in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. It is east of Stirling.
Toponymy
Possible interpretations are that Dollar is derived from ''Doilleir'', an Irish and Scots Gaelic word mean ...
. One Septimus Leishman made a handsome donation to the club in 1885 to enable a "modern" pond and clubhouse to be built in the town in Murray Place.
*
Duddingston
Duddingston ( sco, Duddiston) is a historic village in the east of Edinburgh, Scotland, next to Holyrood Park.
Origins and etymology
The estate wherein Duddingston Village now lies was first recorded in lands granted to the Tironensian monks ...
Loch, Edinburgh. A rare octagonal curling-house and artist studio (Duddingston Manse) built for the Duddingston Curling Society & Rev. John Thomson 1823-4. The upper floor was the studio and he named it 'Edinburgh', allowing his housekeeper to say that he had 'gone to Edinburgh' if a parishioner called when he was painting or curling. The house was designed by the renowned architect William Henry Playfair, and he evidently provided his services free. The curling-house still stands at the lochside though roofless.
[Duddingstone Curling House](_blank)
/ref>
*Eglinton Country Park
Eglinton Country Park is located on the grounds of the old Eglinton Castle estate in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, Scotland (map reference NS 3227 4220). Eglinton Park is situated in the parish of Kilwinning, part of the former district of Cunni ...
, Irvine, Ayrshire. The Curling House no longer exists, however it is featured in a contemporary painting (See illustration).
*Fingask Castle
Fingask Castle is a country house in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is perched above Rait, three miles (5 km) north-east of Errol, in the Braes of the Carse, on the fringes of the Sidlaw Hills. Thus it overlooks both the Carse of Gowr ...
, Perthshire. A vernacular example with a chimney on one gable end (See illustration).
*Fochabers
Fochabers (; gd, Fachabair or Fothabair) is a village in the Parish of Bellie, in Moray, Scotland, east of the cathedral city of Elgin and located on the east bank of the River Spey. 1,728 people live in the village, which enjoys a rich mus ...
, Moray. An ornate curling house still survives, built with wood, some of it unworked, serving as 'tree trunk' supports to the roof.[Fochabers](_blank)
/ref>
*Gosford House
Gosford House is a neoclassical country house around northeast of Longniddry in East Lothian, Scotland, on the A198 Aberlady Road, in of parkland and coast.
It is the family seat of the Charteris family, the Earls of Wemyss and March. It was t ...
, Aberlady
Aberlady ( sco, Aiberleddy, Gaelic: ''Obar Lobhaite'') is a coastal village in the Scottish council area of East Lothian. The village had an estimated population of in .
Etymology
The name ''Aberlady'' has Brittonic origins. The first part of ...
. A surviving curling house here has unusual shell decorations.[Gosford Curling House](_blank)
and is faced with tufa-like stone.
/ref>
*Lindores Loch
Lindores Loch is a freshwater loch, situated in North Fife in the Parish of Abdie, in the Central Belt of Scotland. The Loch has for many years been used as a fishery and is well known for its abundant fish life. A curling pond is situated on th ...
, Fife. It was built by the Abdie Curling Club in the mid-1860s on the site of an older building and although now roofed with corrugated iron it was previously thatched. The walls are covered with stout wooden shelves where the stones were stored and other items such as crampits and wooden tee markers. A simple table and chair completed the furnishings together with an open fire. The windows were not glazed and had stout metal bars for security.
/ref>
*Markinch
Markinch (, (Scottish Gaelic: Marc Innis) is both a village and a parish in the heart of Fife, Scotland. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the village
has a population of 2,420. The civil parish had a population of 16,530 (in 2011).Cens ...
, Fife. A fine stone “curling house” was built in around 1850 with three rooms, the Laird’s room, (the Laird being Mr. Balfour, of Balbirnie House), the west room and the curling stone room. The club moved from the site in 1914.
*Newfarm Loch
New Farm Loch was situated in a low-lying area between the farms of Holehouse and New Farm in the Parish of Kilmarnock, New Farm Loch, East Ayrshire in Scotland. The loch was mostly artificial, having been developed as a curling pond, fed by the ...
, East Ayrshire. The loch was situated in a low-lying area between the farms of Holehouse and Newfarm in the Parish of Kilmarnock. The loch was mostly artificial and had stone built Curling Houses as well as wooden pavilions.
*Partick
Partick ( sco, Pairtick, Scottish Gaelic: ''Partaig'') is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch, to the east Yorkhill and Kelvingrove Park (across the River Kelvin), and to t ...
, Glasgow - The Partick Curling Club was established in 1842 and in 1900 they acquired a long lease on the site in the new Victoria Park where they constructed a clubhouse and ponds.
References
;Notes
;Sources
# Reid, Donald (2001). ''In the Valley of the Garnock (Beith, Dalry & Kilbirnie)''. Beith : DoE. .
# Service, John (1890). ''Thir Notandums, being the literary recreations of the Laird Canticarl of Mongrynen.'' Edinburgh : Y. J. Pentland.
# Walls, William (1926). ''Life, Love, and Light''. Edinburgh : Privately Published.
External links
Scottish Curling Houses video footage
Duddingstone loch and Curling House
{{Commons category, Curling houses
Curling terminology
Curling in Scotland
Architecture in Scotland
Curling venues