Border Ice Rink

How It all Began

 

The Birth of "The Friendly Rink O' The Border"

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​The Border Ice Rink was the brainchild of local farmer Willie Wilson.   Willie who sadly died in 1998 was a past president of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club and was the main inspiration behind the fund raising to form a company to build the rink we all take today for granted.

The Border Ice Rink was in the planning for a few years, was built in 1964 and opened on 1st October that year.   The design was based on the Canadian style soft base ice pad (brine pipes bedded in loose gravel), which was effective and economical in construction.

Border's curlers used to travel to Haymarket ice rink in Edinburgh to curl and always dreamed of having their own rink in the Borders.   Willie Wilson helped make that dream come true.

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Since the rink was opened there has been understandably considerable changes.   The main things being:

• Replacing the ice pad with a much more economic insulated concrete base to reduce running costs and be more environmentally friendly.

• Updating the ice preparation equipment with the incorporation of Zamboni ice cutting machine, Battery Ice Scrapers, Nipper and the use of deionized water to produce a better playing surface.   These measures all contribute to keep the ice depth down which continues the theme of reducing running costs and being more environmentally friendly.

• Total upgrade of the kitchen and bar areas.

• In 2022 the cement/asbestos roof was replaced with 100mm insulated panels to increase efficiency of temperature control, not to mention the removal of asbestos from the building.   Click the "Roof Video Button" on the left to see the roof being changed.

• 2023 sees a new refrigeration plant being installed.   This unit replaces a rather old model which has become unreliable, expensive to run and used a refrigerant that is rated as harmful to the environment.

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This work is ongoing and never stops....

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