Curling

Meigle Curling Club, originally Meigle Curling Society, was formed in 1814. The first record of the society is a minute dated 12 October 1814 and the rules and regulations of the society were drawn up and made binding on 17 October 1814. 

At one time Perthshire had 73 curling clubs, with the Meigle club being recorded as the ninth oldest curling club in the county. Its home was in an unlikely site adjacent to the United Free Church - unlikely as this is a relatively high point of the village. The pond was lost around 1900.

The Strathmore Curling Club, also based in Meigle, dates from 1844. Although this club appears to have founded by the landowners of the villages, the distinction between the rival clubs gradually diminished and they merged into Strathmore (Meigle) Club. 

Strathmore Curling Club’s curling pond was near to where Alyth Junction Station and the Belmont Arms used to be and was marked on the Ordnance Survey map as late as 1971. It is thought that this is where the photo (below right) was taken, perhaps during the 1920s. 

The club played on curling ponds at a variety of sites including both sides of the Meigle Burn, immediately downstream from the railway bridge. The Second Edition of the Ordnance Survey map of Meigle, dated 1910, shows a curling pond on the south side of Meigle Burn just to the east of the railway bridge carrying the line from Meigle to Alyth. This was presumably a replacement for the older curling pond shown on a map of 1900 situated about half a mile further east along the burn. Other curling ponds existed slightly to the south of the former United Presbyterian church and to the west of the A927 before the turn in the road at the former Belmont Hotel and one near the entrance to Drumkilbo House.

The club also played on ponds at Kinloch House, Arthurstone House and Cardean, as the Kinlochs of Kinloch, the Carmichaels of Arthurstone and the Coxs of Cardean were all patrons of the club. The pavilion dating from the late 19th century remains in situ by the curling pond at Arthurstone House.