Curling has been named the fastest growing winter sport with an increasing army of fans across the world.

However, the sport still remains constant to its ancient Scottish roots with every curling stone in the world coming from an uninhabited island nine miles off the west coast mainland.

Once every ten years, workers from Kays Curling factory go to Ailsa Craig looking for unique granite, which was formed after a volcanic eruption on the island around 60 million years ago.

The granite is then taken back to the factory in Mauchline, Ayrshire, where the stones are produced before being sent all over the world and used in events such as the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Only Kay's Curling have a license to extract Ailsa Craig granite and they have been producing curling stones for 167 years.

The stones being used in Pyeongchang have recently been criticised by some quarters for behaving unpredictably but Kay's Curling's manager Donald Macrae believes only a bad curler blames his tools.

He said: "Coaches know the level of testing and assurance that has gone into the product performing in the arena.

"The stones are getting better all the time."