Curling

Curling – The Sport on Ice with Stones and Strategy.

Please take a few minutes to read our Curling Fun Facts

Curling is a unique and captivating winter sport played on ice, where two teams take turns sliding polished granite stones towards a target area called the “house.” Often described as “chess on ice,” curling combines precision, strategy, teamwork, and skill. Players use sweeping to influence the stone’s speed and direction, making every shot a blend of athletic ability and tactical thinking.

Accessible to all ages and abilities, curling is a social and inclusive game that balances competition with camaraderie. Whether you’re aiming for Olympic glory or just enjoying a friendly match with friends, curling offers excitement, strategy, and plenty of fun.

Curling is one the main sports we play at Forfar Indoor Sports. With more than 1,000 curling members and 40 individual Curling Clubs from Fife, Dundee, Angus & Grampian utilising our ice we are one of the more sociable curling venues in Scotland.

With 2 curling halls, one with 4 curling rinks and the other with 2 curling rinks, we not only cater for our local curling clubs we also host Regional, National & International curling competitions. Curling is a team sport played by two teams of four players on a rectangular sheet of ice. Its nickname, The Roaring Game, originates from the rumbling sound the 44-pound (19.96kg) granite stones make when they travel across the ice.

Scottish origins

One of the world’s oldest team sports, curling originated in the 16th century in Scotland, where games were played during winter on frozen ponds and lochs. The earliest-known curling stones came from the Scottish regions of Stirling and Perth and date from 1511. In the 1600s, stones with handles were introduced.

Key developments

The first curling clubs appeared in Scotland, with the Grand Caledonian Curling Club, formed in 1838, being responsible for formulating the first official rules of the sport. The Club was renamed the Royal Caledonian Curling Club in 1843. The key 20th-century developments in the sport have been the standardisation of the stone, the development of the slide delivery, and the use of indoor, refrigerated ice facilities.

Olympic history

Men’s curling was included in the Olympic programme in 1924 at the first Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix. It was then dropped, and later re-introduced as a demonstration sport in 1932 in Lake Placid. Between 1936 and 1992, curling was staged at the Games as a demonstration sport: in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936 and Innsbruck in 1964, under the German name of Eisschiessen; and in 1988 in Calgary and in 1992 in Albertville, with both men’s and women’s events. It was in Nagano in 1998 that it officially joined the Olympic programme, with both men’s and women’s competitions.

The first World Wheelchair Curling Championship was held in January 2002 and in March that year, the International Paralympic Committee granted official medal status to Wheelchair Curling for mixed gender teams. The Organising Committee of the Torino Paralympic Winter Games 2006 agreed to include Wheelchair Curling in their programme.

In 2003, Curling was featured on the programmes of the World University Winter Games and the Asian Winter Games for the first time. In 2005, the World Men’s and Women’s Championships were separated once again, and held in different parts of the world. Also that year the European Youth Olympic Festival introduced a curling competition for Junior men and women between 15 and 18 years of age. The growth of the sport in Asia was recognized with the World Women’s Championship held in Aomori, Japan, in 2007 and Gangneung, Korea, in 2009. The World Men’s Curling Championship will take place in Beijing, China in 2014.

Many curling champions have started their curling careers on Forfar Ice, with the most recent Hailey Duff reaching the pinnacle of the sport, winning an Olympic Gold medal in Eve Muirhead’s rink at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

For more information or to enquire about learning to curl contact us: curl@fis.scot