Game Of Stones: Scottish Island Sweeps Up Olympic Curling

Mauchline, United Kingdom, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Jan, 2022 ) :In a factory outside Ayr in southwest Scotland, James Wyllie carefully lifts and caresses a curling stone, as well-used drilling and polishing machines grind in the background.

The 40-pound (18 kilogram) stone is made from unique granite rock harvested on Ailsa Craig, about 16 kilometres (10 miles) over a wild stretch of sea to the west of the mainland.

Wyllie, 72, is the retired owner of Kays Curling, which has been making curling stones since 1851 and has the exclusive right to harvest granite from the remote volcanic island.

The stones from his factory will be used at the Beijing Winter Olympics, which start with a mixed doubles event between Great Britain and Sweden on Wednesday.

"Ailsa Craig for probably almost 200 years now has been a unique source of granite for curling stones," Wyllie told AFP at the factory in Mauchline, 12 miles from Ayr.

"There has been no equivalent type of granite found anywhere else in the world so far which is suitable for the purpose of a curling stone.

"There have been one or two other sources tried with varying degrees of success but none of them has proved to be nearly as good as the Ailsa Craig stone."