Curling: Blair Castle to host historic reunion

Jan 23 2009 by Johnathon Menzies, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

THE AIR will be thick with nostalgia today as Highland Perthshire plays host to a Canadian curling team following in the footsteps of a historic sporting dynasty.

Blair Castle will play host to twenty-strong squad who are returning to the Big County a century after their predecessors made a similar journey.

The visit has been arranged by the Atholl Province, a group of around nine curling clubs, whose patron is the current, and eleventh, Duke of Atholl.

It is the latest incarnation of a visit in 1909, when the winter sports enthusiasts travelled across the Atlantic to Perthshire to face the then seventh Duke of Atholl’s curling team.

Archivist Jane Anderson will lead the group on a special tour around the site today, where they will be invited to pour over documents and photographs preserved from their countrymen’s original visit.

A letter from the 7th Duke to Miss Murray MacGregor recalls the 1909 arrival.

It reads: “We had a great day last Friday, entertained 30 of the Canadian Curlers at luncheon in the ballroom. I had all my skips and office bearers to meet them. There were a lot of Perthshire Curling Club committee in addition – we sat down to 85. And had a splendid feed.”

Outdoor curling was first played in Scotland between the 16th and 19th centuries.

The special sporting relationship between Canada and Scotland is recognised regularly during the Strathcona Cup.

It is contested every five years. This year is its centenary.