In addition to lawn bowls, indoor carpet bowling was also very popular in Scotland, particularly in the south-west. Langholm tournaments were played mainly in hotels and the Buccleuch Hall and could sometime last for over 12 hours.

Equipment consisted of eight pairs of bowls (four spotted, four plain), an over and under carpet made of felt (24 x 3 feet), iron end guards, and wooden side guides. The bowls were made of lignum vitae, a type of wood from the Caribbean and northern Latin America. In earlier times they were ceramic. They had no bias, i.e. did not curl in their trajectory.