This is a curling stone. It was made 280 years ago and is one of the oldest curling stones in Scotland. Curling is a sport that was invented in Scotland. The players slide the stones along the ice on frozen lochs to see who can get nearest to the target.

• Curling stone
• 1720
• Buittle, Kirkcudbrightshire
• An early curling stone engraved with the owner's or maker's initials "W.McG", the parish and date. The initials and date 'W.J. 22' may be a later owner

This is an early heart-shaped curling stone, with the owners or makers initials W.McG. and the date 1720 carved on it. Painted in red are also the words Buittle and the initials and date W J 22, perhaps the initials of a subsequent owner in 1722.

The origins of curling in Scotland are obscure but probably predate the earliest specific written reference to it in 1638. Dutch winter landscapes painted by Peter Breughel in the 1560s show curling matches in progress, and the game was almost certainly being played in Scotland at this time.

Nothing is known about the origin of the Buittle club, but in February 1841, at Lochhill, there was a challenge match between the married ladies of Buittle against the unmarried - twenty ladies on each side, with a gentleman skipping for each side. The unmarried ladies won.

In the collection of The Stewartry Museum, Kirkcudbright.