The Scotts gave the world the game of golf; but they also gave us a rather unusual…and misunderstood…game – Curling!
Unlike most sports where a participant can simply travel down to the nearest department or sporting goods store and purchase the required equipment; curling requires a very specific piece of equipment that is only available on a tiny uninhabited island off the Scottish coast.
Curling stones are made from the super-dense granite found on the island of Ailsa Craig. And with the Winter Olympics less than 50 days away Kays Curling has been busy preparing the special stones used in the Curling competition.
Co-owner of Kays Curling, Jim English spoke on locating the proper granite for the stones saying, “it’s not just a case of landing a boat and then looking for granite. There’s a particular type of granite we’re looking for. We look for ones that have got really tight surface pattern.”
The Scottish Geology Trust notes, “the island is composed almost entirely of microgranite, whose essentially unflawed nature make it ideal for curling stones.”
In fact, Kays has been responsible for making every Curling stone used since the first Winter Olympic Games in 1924.
Kays Curling produces between 1,800 and 2,000 Curling stones each year; not surprisingly Canada is their biggest customer.
The green granite for the body of the stone is at one end of the island; while the blue hone granite is found on the other end of the island.
Creating stones since 1851 in their Mauchline shop, English says, “we can argue that it’s probably won every gold, silver and bronze medal since the sport became a medal sport back in 1998.”
It is believed that the tiny two mile island was created after some volcanic material millions of years ago.
During the game, the Curling stones are subject to a lot of beating and banging; so any stone that would crack or easily is of no use to the players.
Scotland can trace the game of Curling back as far as 1540 and after the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, the sport will debut its first professional league and include players from Europe, Canada, and the United States.