In 1887 the RCCC set up a Special Committee for ideas to celebrate the 50th Annual Meeting of the RCCC the following year. One idea adopted was the setting up of a Literary Committee to prepare a sketch of the Club's history during the previous 50 years, with the Rev. John Kerr MA, FSA Scot as convener.
The result was a book entitled "The history of curling and 50 years of the Royal Caledonian Club" published in April 1890 a copy of which was lent by Robert Smith, one of our members. On page 115 it states that Borestone Curling Society (the word 'club' was not much used before the 18th century) was founded in 1750 and was one of 28 clubs then affiliated to the Royal Caledonian Club as having been formed in the 18th century. On page 208 it states that "a part of the Serbonian bog, where the English cavalry were ensnared and defeated, was accordingly transformed into a curling pond, and the Borestone, in which Bruce planted his standard before the battle, was the name under which the oldest club in Stirling continued to 'curl the channel-stane'". The club was admitted to the RCCC in 1840 (at that time known as the Grand Caledonian Curling Club). Before, and possibly after, the Second World War Borestone's pond was at Bearside in the grounds of Polmaise Castle, which was owned by the Murrays of Polmaise. See the map.
Stirling Curling Club was founded in February 1820 according to the RCCC Yearbook. This has been verified by research in the earliest editions of the Stirling Journal at Stirling Library, and it was admitted to the RCCC in 1841 (then the GCCC). The only mention of this club in Rev. Kerr's book is on page 209 where it says that it was formed in 1820 but no information was at that time available. The club's pond was at the start of the Carse immediately below the Golf Course crags, between the Kings Park farm and the Homesteads.See the map.