THERE must be something in the water. There is certainly something special in the history of the ice.
The search for the most outlandishly successful patch of land in world curling would lead one down past the Ailsa Craig – the producer of the great stones – and into Stranraer. Just off the main road lies the North West Castle Hotel. A stroll past reception takes one to the doors of Stranraer Curling Club. Medals, cups and boards of honour greet the eye.
Just beyond lies a window. It opens on to an ice rink where the greatest in the world once slid, released a stone and found medals and honours were but an arm’s length away.
Team GB curling sides are tipped for medals at the Winter Olympics that open in Milano Cortina this week. The men’s rink includes two curlers – Hammy McMillan Jr and Bobby Lammie – who are products of Stranraer and Grant Hardie, who is the latest star of a south-west dynasty that has slid, grappled and risen to the top of the sport. The women’s rink includes Jennifer Dodds who is also a graduate of the Stranraer rink.
Team Mouat – the best men’s team for the past three years in world curling with the medals to prove it – thus has three members that can trace their history to days and nights in the North West Castle Hotel.
The lounge of Stranraer’s North Castle Hotel enjoys a ringside seat to the ice rink
Former curler Gail Munro, daughter of Hammy McMillan, is the manager of the hotel ice rink
The story has a further intrigue because the McMillan clan not only built the rink but has supplied the world with extraordinary competitors.
The story starts in the early sixties when Hammy McMillan, the first, bought the hotel. ‘He was advised by a friend to buy the field at the back because one day he would need it,’ says Trevor Harrison, coach and a major contributor to curling in the area. ‘He bought it and then decided to build an ice rink in 1970.’
Hammy McMillan and Bobby Lammie in action for Team GB in the 2022 Beijing Olympics
‘The reason was purely business,’ says McMillan’s daughter, Gail Munro. ‘He was tired of seeing customers travelling away to Ayr or Dumfries to play at the weekend so he decided to keep them at the hotel.’
The business boomed but the family became more besotted by playing than by commercial imperatives. Hammy, the first, became a Scottish mixed and Scottish senior champion. His son, Hammy, the second, became a world champion and two-time Olympian.
His grandson, Hammy, the third, is going for gold in Italy. Another grandson, Grant Hardie, is also on Team Mouat. His grand-daughter, Robyn, is a former world junior champion.
Rhona Martin (second left) and her rink celebrate their gold medal success in 2002
Munro, manager of the ice rink, a Scottish champion and a friend and former team-mate of Rhona Martin, who won gold for Team GB in 2002.
‘I curled through the eighties and nineties with Rhona. We were in five Scottish finals and never won one. We parted ways in 1999 and Rhona won the Scottish in 2000 and the Olympics in 2002. It took me to 2008 to get my first Scottish title,’ she says.
‘I kept going and eventually got it. Rhona and I did win European medals together,’ she adds.
This shows a resilience and strength that becomes apparent in Munro as the conversation progresses. Her father has passed and the hotel was sold four years ago. ‘I am the one they left behind,’ she says with a smile of the McMillan clan. She has weathered the storms that have assailed her and her business.
Famously, she took on the curling establishment when a coach claimed erroneously that she had refused to play for Scotland in the world championships in Canada in 2008. ‘I was dropped and never, ever would say I would not play for my country.
‘It was a three-year battle and the house was potentially being sold to pay the legal bills.’
Munro took on the curling establishment when a coach claimed erroneously that she had refused to play for Scotland in the world championships in Canada in 2008
This victory was never about the money. It was about principle. It was an example of Munro’s distinct approach to life.
Asked if she had any disappointment about not being on Martin’s winning Olympic rink, she says: ‘I was not upset by that. I can look through the window and see what they had to endure in the aftermath of that. As much as the success is wonderful, it is life-changing. Rhona is defined by that while I quietly get on with my life and slide under the radar. I am quite happy with my lot.’
Her quietness should not be confused with lack of effort or a dearth of trenchant views on the state of curling.
Stranraer is the hub of extraordinary greatness but it is not immune to the problems that beset the sport. Covid hurt participation levels with local school children missing out on the annual introduction to the ice. Electricity charges soared and at one point it was costing £1,000 a day to service the rink. Charges have since dropped but Munro knows that challenges must be faced.
‘I love the profile the Olympics bring but my job is to put sliders on people and make them curlers. We are successful and we are busy but not as much as we once were,’ she says. ‘If you look back to the seventies and eighties, there were waiting lists for the club.
The North West Castle Hotel in Stranraer is famous for being a curling hotspot
‘The world has changed. This was a small community where once many women did not work. They were looking for something to do and it was all about the social side. Now every family needs two incomes.’
Children, too, have other options. But the club has a strong junior section and good links to schools so that every child has a chance at least to sample the sport. Louise Church, 17, has stayed with it.
Teenager Louise Church has been enjoying curling in Stranraer since she was a young girl
‘This is my seventh season,’ she says. ‘I came though the primary school programme and enjoy it. It’s good way to work on co-ordination and fitness. I have five acceptances for university to study politics and I will make sure an ice rink is nearby.’
Youngsters leaving the area is another issue that Munro has to face. But she is positive about her way forward.
‘A little bit of fun has been taken out of the sport,’ she says. Talent is identified early and focus is on winning competitions but Munro promotes the joy of the sport.
Hammy McMillan jnr is set to compete in the forthcoming Winter Olympics in Italy
‘You have to remember that when I started, curling was only a demonstration sport at the Olympics,’ she says. ‘We were in it for the fun and meeting friends. We didn’t have aspirations to become Olympians.’
She maintains this ethos at Stranraer. ‘When junior competitions are held here, I make sure there is a disco, something to eat, and the prizes go right down the ladder. It can be serious now. You must perform. But I believe in mass participation. The cream will always rise to the top.’
Rinks in Ayr and Elgin have closed and others have been given a fragile reprieve. ‘Yes, there is a very real fight to keep curling alive,’ Munro says. She believes more corporate involvement and a stronger tourist strategy could pay dividends.
‘Everyone wants to play in the motherland,’ she says.
She looks on to the rink and admits memories come flooding back despite the reality that she is a ‘one-man band’ who has to keep the show on the road.
Harrison recalls a spectacular shot taken just yards away when Lammie, now a world beater, was a boy wonder of just 13.
Trevor Harrison is a coach and a major contributor to curling in the Stranraer area
Munro has more recent memories of victories. ‘Every year we play a competition with the juniors and I take part in it. I do it deliberately to get the respect of the juniors,’ she says. Young Louise affirms that the rink manager can still perform on the ice.
‘This is a game where you need patience,’ she says. ‘But you can be involved all your life.’
The ice has infiltrated the lives of the McMillan clan and the town of Stranraer, spinning a wondrous tale but Munro has to get back to work.
The wider family has emigrated to Milan for the immediate future. ‘My mother will be there,’ she says. ‘She will be sitting knitting in the stands.’ Two of her grandsons will be going for gold.
The North West Castle Hotel has new owners but the ice remains. And one arm of the McMillan family business continues to take on the world.
