The earliest recorded curling near Skelmorlie dates from December 1818, when members of Largs Noddle Curling Club met on a loch on Skelmorlie Muir. They enjoyed good play until snowfall brought the game to an end. The precise loch is uncertain, although research supplied to Largs Museum suggests it may have been the Mill Dam near Barr Farm.

Between about 1860 and 1880, the village gained a designated skating and curling pond west of Skelmorlie Castle Road and north-east of Annetyard Farm. Formerly a village reservoir, it became available for recreation after replacement reservoirs were opened near the golf club. When winter provided sufficiently thick ice, villagers gathered there to skate and curl.

The Skelmorlie Skating and Curling Club was formed in November 1880 after the original skating club was dissolved. Its surviving minutes and accounts record a carefully organised village institution: a managing committee, rules, memberships, evening skating and the maintenance of the pond.

The first-year entrance fee was £2 2s, with an annual subscription of ten shillings and reduced family rates. Sixty-four initial members included residents from prominent Skelmorlie and Wemyss Bay households. Committee members included E. Higginbotham, H. Martini, J. Honeyman, J. Fleming, R. S. Scott, M. Evans and Dr Wylie.

The committee renewed the pond lease, enlarged and repaired the pond, installed water supplies and fencing, and regulated its use. Skaters and curlers shared the ice, while the club worked closely with the separately affiliated Eglinton curlers.

Local membership allowed curling and competitions on the village pond, but matches against other clubs required affiliation to the Royal Caledonian Curling Club. Skelmorlie Curling Club, recorded as Club No. 393, was therefore founded in 1881. Its patron and patroness were Mr and Mrs John Graham of Skelmorlie Castle. James Hamilton was president, Newton Wright vice-president, the Rev. John Keith chaplain, and schoolteacher Charles Dow secretary and treasurer.

Later in 1881 a second body, Skelmorlie Eglinton Curling Club, Club No. 394, was established. Its patrons were the Earl and Countess of Eglinton and Winton, Archibald William Montgomerie and his wife Sophie. Robert Sinclair Scott was president, with James Hamilton as vice-president, the Rev. John Keith as chaplain, James Fleming as secretary and Mortimer Evans as treasurer.

The precise reason for two closely connected clubs is not fully documented. The long-held club explanation is that the first club’s terms did not allow entry to Ayrshire competitions, making a second affiliation necessary. The overlapping office-bearers and the later prominence of the Eglinton club support that interpretation.

In 1885 Robert Sinclair Scott presented the Skelmorlie Eglinton Curling Club with an ornate silver President’s Kettle. Shaped like a curling stone, it had a bone handle, stood on four small silver stones and was supported by crossed silver brooms. It could boil water for the traditional post-match hot toddy.

Because outdoor competition depended on suitable frost, the trophy was played for only when conditions allowed. Its last recorded contest was in 1980. The original was later sold and replaced with a more conventional trophy because of the cost of insurance.

The club’s other historic items included a President’s medal worn on formal occasions and a silver shield presented by James C. Burns Esq. in December 1893 for annual competition.

A curling stone remains embedded in the wall at the foot of Annetyard Road, behind the yellow grit bin. One local interpretation is that it acted as a way marker, directing visiting curlers towards the pond at a time when distinctive objects and gateposts helped people identify places more readily than street signs.

Whatever its original purpose, the stone is a rare physical reminder that curling was once woven into the landscape and everyday life of Skelmorlie.

The Eglinton club remained active when outdoor ice allowed until about 1897. After an interval, it was revived between 1926 and 1938 under Captain Cedric Sinclair Scott, son of founder Robert Sinclair Scott. Captain Scott became president and J. K. Moodie of Victoria Place served as Honorary Secretary and Treasurer.

Minutes from the revived period record the election of skips and team members, arrangements for the President’s Cup and annual returns to the Royal Caledonian Curling Club. The Skating and Curling Club itself is believed to have been formally wound up in 1927.

By the late 1930s the old pond was no longer used. It became overgrown with grass and reeds and was remembered locally as a place where boys collected tadpoles. The land was eventually redeveloped as Annetyard Drive.

The loss of the outdoor pond did not end the club. In 1980 Michael Scott organised a revival competition for the President’s Kettle donated by his grandfather. Rinks from Largs Thistle, Ardgowan and Greenock Ladies were invited to the Magnum in Irvine, where Ardgowan won the contest.

Skelmorlie continued into the era of indoor ice and today curls at the Waterfront Leisure Complex in Greenock. Membership has risen and fallen, but the club’s identity and Royal Club affiliation have endured.

Skelmorlie has also maintained a strong national connection. In 2011 James Carswell, Jim Morrison, Catriona Cooper and Stewart Sutherland represented Scotland at the UK Four Nations, contributing to a Scottish victory. From 2011 through 2023, James Carswell regularly skipped Scottish Four Nations teams, with Skelmorlie representation in most years across that period. Published Scottish team records include selections in 2014, 2018, 2019 and 2023, alongside the club’s own record of the wider run.