Our Curling Rinks
Cupar Curling Province mainly uses only two ice rinks throughout its season. These are:
Perth Ice Rink is situated at the Dewars Centre on Glover Street, Perth, is run by Perth Live Active and is where Cupar Curling Province holds its League and Bonspiel competitions. The facility comprises 8 curling sheets and is mixed use with skating taking place from time to time.
Kinross Curling is situated on Green Road, Kinross and is run by Kinross Curling Trust and is used by Cupar Curling Province for its Points and Pairs competitions. The faciility comprises 4 curling sheets and is used exclusively for curling.
Curling, as we know it in the modern age, is a very different game from the activity from which it stems. A few hundred years ago, when the climate was considerably colder in winter, poorly drained areas of farmland would freeze over, and stay that way for several months. A game played by farm workers and local villagers was to slide large, flat bottomed, stones over this ice in the direction of a stick embedded in the middle of the pond. As with everything involving competitive human endeavour, the player getting closest to said stick would be declared the winner. Village ponds and some man made ponds and even lakes were utilised for the same purpose, alongside skating.
The vast majority of these sites have now disappeared following the introduction of large indoor ice sheets around the early 1900's and with the onset of climate change frozen ponds, all winter, are fast becoming a fond memory unlikley to be repeated.
In 2009 a project began to establish the location and history of all the curling places across the UK, using club and national records and printed articles of the day. This project has culminated in the production of a resources website by the name of Historical Curling Places which is being constantly added to. This resource hosts an excellent interactive Historical Curling Places map of Scotland.
So, when next perusing your curling club minutes of the 19th and 20th centuries why not refer to this resource to reveal where that village curling pond, often mentioned, was actually located? Traces of it might still exist.