Curling Pond stations in Scotland

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I doing other research, I came across Aboyne Curling Pond Station. I hadn't realised such stations existed, but logic is that you'ld need to travel to sporting events of all sorts and if there were crowds, and a railway nearby, train travel would be logical. The page does say "Apart from advertised events the station was not listed on timetables and the sport had a very seasonal and unpredictable requirement for train services" and I find it hard to imagine any stations in the modern era purely for curling - but perhaps there are in other major curling countries?

Others - Drummuir Curlers' Platform, a platform at Loch Leven, and Carsbreck Station (with a whole host of other names - perhaps the most renamed station anywhere?) came to light as I peached, and an article at http://curlinghistory.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-trains-to-loch.html which is fascinating - that latter really worth a read.

It seems that there may have been more modern access to ice and curling in South Glasgow too- from https://sportheritage.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/curling-in-glasgows-southside/

Curling in Glasgow’s Southside
In previous posts on the blog I mentioned the importance of winter sports in the Southside of Glasgow, particularly at Crossmyloof ice rink and outdoor curling at various locations in the area in particular Lilybank Curling Pond off Shawmoss Road. A group of children from Shawlands explored the lost spaces of sport in the area by first locating the sites of the former ice rink and trying to reconstruct a particular image of the building from Crossmyloof railway station.

From Carsbeck Wikipedia page

In 1935 it is recorded that 2576 curlers and 5000 people in total attended the bonspiel that had started at 11.25 and finished at 2.30pm and the queuing of passengers had to be carefully organised with only four carriages able to use the station platform at one time.

Looking for photos to illustrate this ... finding some pretty Lochs and open countryside ... one or two noice pictures in the articles linke above, but not sure on copyright.   Never mind. "You learn something every day", but a don't think that curlers will form a big part of the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) traffic post lockdown.



Edit to add:

A bonspiel is a curling tournament, consisting of several games, often held on a weekend. Until the 20th century most bonspiels were held outdoors, on a frozen freshwater loch. Today almost all bonspiels are held indoors on specially prepared artificial ice.

and

The Grand Match, also called The Bonspiel, is an outdoor curling tournament, or bonspiel, held most recently on the Lake of Menteith in Stirling, Scotland, when the weather is cold enough. Traditionally it is a match between the north and south of Scotland.

That latter often held at Carsbeck (well, as often as ice levels would allow) - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Match