The Gillies Hill curling ponds were constructed by the Murray family of Polmaise Castle (the ruined mansion in the center of Gillies Hill) during the second half of the 19th century.
These ponds and their accompanying small storage house form part of the eastern boundary of Gillies Hill, the historical hill on which the Gillies hid before being summoned down to the Battle of Bannockburn by Robert the Bruce.
According to Peter Paterson, Cambusbarron’s historian,
“Curling on the hill was very popular in the past: the original pond can still be seen just up from Bearside, with next to it, the ruins of the old Clubhouse, where members of Borestone Curling Club, appropriately, since we are on Gillies Hill, named after the rock into which Bruce is said to have placed his standard before Bannockburn, kept their stones.
A second pond, lies to the west.
A third ‘pond’ is the artificial and water-less one, the tarred rectangle nearer the Polmaise Road, laid down in 1914 to allow curling when the ice on the other ponds was too thin for play: the tar would be sprayed with water several times during cold winter mornings: by the afternoon, a glaze of ice allowed play to commence.
The Laird, Murray of Polmaise, was the club’s patron.”
Paterson’s grandfather “when unemployed pre-Great War, worked up there now & again, boiling potatoes for the Laird's curler-guests: he was once badly frightened at night on the Castle Avenue, by a toff walking down with an early version of an electric torch - which required 'pumping' motions - and sounds - to produce electricity: he thought it was a ghost.”
Paterson goes on to say that the “tarred area nearest Polmaise Road was laid down … in 1914, and was for those days when there was ice, but it wasn't sufficiently string enough/thick enough for safe play: instead, my Grampaw, (Geordie Morrison) would help spray layers of water onto the tarred surface: as these froze, others were laid: thus a playworthy surface was produced.” Paterson himself remembers “I can recall 'curling' there in the early Sixties - with stones we borrowed from the now ruined house.”
The Curling Ponds are now overgrown, but contain a wonderful display of wildflowers especially in the early summer. The curling pond and indeed a large portion of Gillies Hill are currently threatened by proposed housing developments and quarry expansion. To learn more, go to Save Gillies Hill’s website