Made in Scotland, built for champions: The curling stones of Milano Cortina 2026

For both the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, 132 new curling stones were created and delivered by manufacturers Kays Scotland.

And just like the stones used previously at Olympic level since 1998 and at all World Curling championships, these stones have been hand-crafted in Scotland. They are made out of two types of granite only to be found on Ailsa Craig, an uninhabited 4-mile island sitting in the Firth of Clyde, off Scotland’s west coast.

Curling stones at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

From Ailsa Craig to Cortina

Ailsa Craig is a volcanic plug that rises out of the water, formed 60 million years ago.

Being ultra water-resistant, Ailsa Craig Blue Hone granite has proven to be the most effective material for the stone’s running edge on today’s modern ice. Meanwhile, Ailsa Craig Common Green granite, which makes up the rest of each curling stone, is most effective at resisting impact and does not splinter after contact with another stone in play.

Ailsa Craig © World Curling / Tom Rowland

The set of stones being played in the team games has only been used once — at last year’s World Junior Championships in Cortina which acted as a test event for these Games. Meanwhile, the other set, were used for the first time in the Olympic mixed doubles event, and will be used again at the Paralympic Winter Games.

A heritage of craftsmanship

Based in the small Ayrshire town of Mauchline, Kays Scotland has been making curing stones for over 170 years and has continued in that time as a traditional family business.

Kays has the exclusive licence to ‘harvest’ Ailsa Craig granite, and they do this by organising an expedition to the island once every few years. In the past, this used to involve blasting, but nowadays, there is enough granite lying around that has fallen naturally to make the use of dynamite unnecessary.

Harvesting granite from Ailsa Craig © World Curling / Tom Rowland

Paul Davidson bought the company three years ago from the original family owners and his efforts since then mean that the company has gone from strength to strength.

“We’ve never had the amount of exposure that we’re enjoying now. We’ve broadened our company’s story beyond the ‘Ailsa Craig uninhabited Scottish island’ tale,” he said.

“This is a business where we’re trying to supply stones to help athletes to perform to the best of their ability.”

A global business in a changing world

Kays’s stones have been supplied worldwide for decades, and therein lies a potential problem, as Paul explained, “There are things you never see coming, for example, Russia invading Ukraine. Russia used to be 20% of our market.”

He added, “This is a good business using artisans to make a true world-class product. We’re exporting to 70 countries.”

And, given the craft nature of the work, Paul identified an immediate problem, “We knew as soon as we took over, we had to get young people in to get knowledge transfer going. And we’ve got a fantastic set of young people there.”

“One of those young guys made half of the Olympic stones. John Brown, who has done six Olympics, made the other half. And when we gave the stones over to World Curling, they couldn’t tell them apart.”

And as a businessman with promotion of his company and product in mind, Paul recognises a publicity gift when he sees it, like when American rap superstar Snoop Dogg visited and tried curling for himself — “Snoop Dog throwing one of our stones… you just can’t buy that!”

Snoop Dogg tries curling at Milano Cortina 2026 © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Official Olympic giftware

Now, to commemorate Milano Cortina 2026, Kays Scotland are selling official Olympic licensed products during the Games on their official giftware website.

Their granite giftware items can be purchased on the Kays Scotland website.