Edinburgh curling club transforms into film studio to survive Covid lockdown

Curl Edinburgh, the home of Edinburgh Curling Club, was forced to suspend the 2020-21 season due to pandemic restrictions.
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Since then, the state-of-the-art ice rink, which has seven sheets of ice dedicated to the sport of curling, has sat dormant.

Now in a bid to survive the difficult lockdown period, Curl Edinburgh has transformed the 15,000 square foot building into a film studio.

Edinburgh curling club training before the first lockdown began.Edinburgh curling club training before the first lockdown began.
Edinburgh curling club training before the first lockdown began.
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The facility, which is now available for production companies to rent, has undergone major renovation.

Curling event officer at Curl Edinburgh, Andy Macpherson, hopes this move will help the facility survive through the ongoing pandemic.

He said: “We were forced to make the inevitable, but very difficult decision to postpone this year’s curling season, but as a club, we didn’t want that to mean our state-of-the-art facility had to sit empty.

“The building has considerable space and scope for a variety of uses with additional amenities including a bar and catering facilities.”

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The club's reinvention comes after leading figures in Scottish Curling warned that the sport is under serious financial threat due to coronavirus restrictions.

Many rinks lost important streams of income after being forced to close through lockdown and clubs have been left financially vulnerable.

European gold medal winner and Olympic hopeful Bruce Mouat, from Edinburgh was among those who raised concern.

He said: “Lockdown had a major impact on all communities across the country but the curling community is particularly affected both socially and financially.

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“Across the whole of Scotland, the loss of income has been around £9 million which is extremely tough.”

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