When the inaugural members of Tullymet Curling Club took to the ice the country was just being issued Penny Black stamps.
Slide forward 175 years and the hardy band of Highland Perthshire curlers are still enjoying the Roarin’ Game on frozen ponds that have been used for decades when weather allows.
A special celebration was held to mark the milestone anniversary of Tullymet one of Scotland’s oldest clubs which was founded in 1840 in the small valley of the same name.
Members hosted a dinner at Westlands Hotel, Pitlochry, for 45 guests including past and present members, along with representatives of other local curling clubs.
The club is part of the Atholl Province, one of 37 Scottish curling provinces that make up the sport’s parent body the Royal Caledonian Curling Club (RCCC).
Today, the club has 12 playing members and three honorary non-playing members and curls out of Dewars Centre in Perth.
At the dinner, photographs charting the club’s history over the last six decades were displayed along with other memorabilia, including curling annuals from the 1880s.
One of the club’s oldest members, Miss Helen Sinclair, and its youngest, David Lamond, cut a cake that had been specially baked for the anniversary.
When the club was established it played matches on a small lochan in the hills above Tullymet, before moving to a more accessible pond and then in the 1950s building its own pond which it still uses today when conditions allow.
In December 1993, the weather allowed members of the club to bring in the New Year on the frozen pond having played a competition.
A prolonged cold spell in January 2001 saw the club curl outside for nine continuous nights, welcoming other local clubs for bonspiels.
Club president Christine Cheape said: “Tullymet Curling Club has a long and proud history and it was wonderful to be able to celebrate that at the dinner.”