Ailsa Craig is a small granite island in the Firth of Clyde, about 16 kilometers off the coast of Scotland. The island, also known as “Paddy’s Milestone” for its location halfway between Glasgow and Belfast, was a haven for Catholics during the Scottish Reformation in the 16th century. Today, its uninhabited and a bird sanctuary home to large numbers of various species of birds including gannets, razorbills, kittiwakes, herring gulls, shags, fulmars, puffins and black -backed gulls.

Ailsa Craig is also the world’s major supplier of a rare type of micro-granite with a highly-interlocked, finely-grained mineral structure free of quartz, which is used to make stones for the sport of curling. More than two-thirds of all curling stones originate from this tiny volcanic pug. The other being the Trefor Granite Quarry in Wales.

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