Monthly Archives: July 2015

island, Ordinary, Scones

The Kinloch Hotel Blackwaterfoot

After having been on some of the smaller islands, Arran feels big and a bit like the mainland. You can get up to 30mph on some of the roads and, of course, there are several small towns with shops … and everything. We arrived on the Claonaig ferry at Loch Ranza with the intention of driving round the southern half of the island and ending up in Brodick. External view of the Kinloch Hotel, BlackwaterfootThe day was breezy with bright sparkling sunshine so the scenery was fantastic. Driving through places like  Dougarie and Machrie was a real pleasure.

Very much an island

By the time we reached Blackwaterfoot, however, it was scone time so we pulled up at the Best Western Kinloch Hotel. The biggest and most obvious place in town … however big and obvious is not necessarily the best. The place was going like a fair so definitely not an intimate coffee shop ambience A scone at Kinloch hotel, Blackwaterfoothowever service was efficient and friendly enough. Our fruit scones arrived in double quick time. Fruit, turned out to be cherry, which I suppose is fruit, but not what we had been expecting. Nevertheless they were quite good, though it was a shame about the scooshie cream that quickly dissolved into something more akin to milk. Arran is big and does not feel as remote as some of the smaller islands. However, you are quickly reminded that it is very much an island. Hardly any mobile reception .. wifi, what’s that??

English settlers

Also, like many of the west coast islands everyone here seems to be English. Some have been here so long they could probably qualify as locals. Scotland wants to encourage immigration so it is great that so many feel they would like to settle here and leave the fast pace of life in London and the south behind. It is not difficult to see why they choose Arran, it’s a very beautiful island.

View from Kinloch hotel towards the Mull of Kintyre and N.Ireland
View from the hotel towards the Mull of Kintyre and N.Ireland

KA27 8ET         tel: 01770 860444        Kinloch Hotel

island, Ordinary, Scones

The Boathouse

The Boathouse is a great spot near to the ferry terminal at Ardminish Bay on Gigha. External view of the Boathouse on the Isle of GighaIt has a wide range of food on offer and is open into the evening for dinner and drinks. Unfortunately when we visited it seemed to be in a state of chaos with staff doing headless chicken impersonations. Although it was not busy we waited a long time before having to ask to be served .. not good! The situation only seemed to be resolved with the return of the manageress or owner, not sure which. It has won several awards and people we spoke to praised it quite highly so hopefully this was just a temporary blip. Gigha is not exactly bristling with fancy eateries so we sincerely hope so. A scone at the Boathouse on the Isle og Gigha

When they eventually arrived, our tea and scones were quite good and it was great to be sitting outside with the sun on our backs. They were nicely presented on a small bread board with a wedge of butter but it was a pity the cream was not quite up to the ‘clotted’ standard.

Honourable?

Standards are not quite up to the mark in that disgrace of a place, the House of Lords. The honourable Lord in charge of standards has reportedly been found snorting cocaine off the breasts of prostitutes. All paid for by you and I. They set the bar that high so they can then decide what is good for the rest of us! The Boathouse, on the other hand, is a far superior House and, if  time had allowed, we would have tried an evening meal because the menu looked very enticing .. next time!

One of the numerous beaches on Gigha looking towards Jura
One of the numerous beaches on Gigha looking towards Jura

PA41 7AA        tel: 01583 505123         The Boathouse

Scones, Top

Big Jessie’s tearoom

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God must be bemused at the shenanigans of the Labour party in it’s leadership elections. Seemingly intent on ripping itself apart in, both in the UK and Scotland. He must wonder how on earth they could get themselves into such a mess. So it is that we find ourselves heading for God’s Island, Gigha. Not in search of answers, because we are sure even He does not have any, but simply to get away from it all because it is too painful to watch. Ferry Inn02Tayinloan, on the Mull of Kintyre, is the jumping off point for Gigha and so we find ourselves in Big Jessie’s tearoom, waiting for the ferry and having a scone.

There appears to be some confusion about the name of this place. It is either Big Jessie’s tearoom, or the Ferry Inn. Think we prefer Big Jessie’s tearoom. Ferry Inn04It is a great wee place that someone has worked hard to create and maintain in its spotless condition. It has a wide range of goodies on offer. We just had a few minutes so it was one of Lorraine’s home baked scones while sitting outside in the sunshine. Very friendly staff and the scones were brilliant, well done Lorraine .. topscone award. No idea who Big Jessie is, or was, but she sounds like the sort of woman who could sort out the Labour party! If she can, then maybe she could move on to the Tory party and sort them out as well. Or is that too much to ask, even for Big Jessie.

PA29 6XG           tel:01583 441387           Ferry Inn TripAd

Ordinary, Scones

Lite Bites

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Tarbert is not exactly overburdened with café-culture type establishments and that’s a shame because it could do with some. Of course it’s easy for the likes of us to swan in to a town like this and be super critical simply because we are used to something different. We don’t have to maintain a place through t

Tarbert03

he winter when visitors are few and far between. Otherwise Starbucks or Costa would have set up here long ago. However, if there is a re

 

ally good coffee shop in Tarbert, you need to shout louder because we could not find you. We did find Lite Bites however.

Town planning

The town itself is built round the harbour however it is not nearly as busy as it once was. Fishing still goes on but it is much diminished. It now features an extensive marina which you would think would bring in a fair amount of money but in fact, the whole place looks a wee bit run down and tired. It does not help the overall impression  when you eventually find a coffee shop situated in a building that would not have looked out of place in the old  Soviet Russia. If Argyll has a town planning department it has some very serious questions to answer! Tarbert01

Facelift

Anyway, Lite Bites has a certain utilitarian feel to it as well probably inspired by the building. However, it is busy busy, so the hard working folks running it are doing something right. They also seem to get on well with the local people. Our scones were okay but as you might expect, presentation was a touch on the austere side. Hopefully Lite Bites and Tarbert itself will get a bit of a facelift before long.

PA29 6UJ            tel: 01880 820191             Lite Bites TripAd

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

EICA

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Climber at the Edinburgh International Climbing ArenaWow, what an amazing place this is! On our way back from Edinburgh airport we decided to visit the EICA, Edinburgh International Climbing Arena at Ratho. Having spent most of my youth hitchhiking to Glencoe every weekend in order to do silly things on rock faces it was both fascinating and slightly disturbing to see what was going on here.

Fascinating in the sense that there were loads of people doing all sorts of climbs in absolute safety, and disturbing because this, for me at least, seemed to detract from the essence of rock climbing where there was always an element of risk. Sometimes quite a big element. The complete absence of risk was all a bit strange. I wondered how transferable the skills learned here would be to a relatively unstable rock face. Perhaps they are not meant to transfer and remain steadfastly within environments such as this magnificent arena. I guess it is whatever turns you on. Orange scone at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena

Anyway, in the interests of indulging my risk taking tendencies, a scone seemed like a good bet. They only had orange scones left .. now that is risky. Maybe not as risky as the youngest MP, Mhairi Black, only 20, to enter the Commons for over 100 years delivering a first class hard hitting maiden speech only to be largely ignored by the media .. what a shame. Turned out that the orange scone was not that risky after all because it was actually rather good and a new experience for both of us. The EICA has loads of facilities for toddlers to pensioners. A wonderful discovery .. we will be back.

EH28 8AA              tel:0131 333 6333           EICA

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Jitter Bean Café & Barista

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Today the European banks and the EU seem to have arrived at some sort of agreement over the Greek problem. You mExternal view of the Jitter Bean cafe, South Queensferryight think that would be cause for all round celebration, however, no one looks happy about the outcome. Both sides are uneasy and jittery! No wonder, it seems incredible that they can bring the country to its knees, completely wreck its economy, and then see it as a good bet for another £50bn loan. It would make us jittery.  To get the loan Greece has to transfer £50bn worth of assets to the Institute of Luxembourg. It is owned by a German company chaired by none other than Wolfgang Schauble. The German finance minister who has been leading the negotiations.

Getting out of the rain

Meanwhile, back in Scotland on a day like today, even in picturesque South Queensferry where there are a lot of cafés, you just want to get in out of the rain. We chose the Jitter Bean Café & Barista simply because it was the closest to where our car was parked. Not because the name reflected in any way the situation in Europe. There is a slightly utilitarian look about the café interior and when we arrived we had to go and look for someone to attend to us. Not a great start.

All was forgiven however when the scones arrived. They were delicious and homebaked by one of the ladies behind the counter.  Coffee was also good and there was lashings of jam and cream with the scones. A scone at the Jitter Bean caféThe service was very friendly and cheery in the end. The staff try very hard and there’s lots of community involvement as well which is always a good thing. If anything the Jitter Bean just needs to pay more attention to details. Only one ordinary towel in the single toilet .. our table needed a wipe, etc. No website so link below is to FaceBook. At the end of the day it gets one of our ‘topscone’ awards and there aren’t that many of them around .. well done.

EH30 9HN            tel:0131 331 1963            Jitter Bean FB

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The Robin’s Nest

What a find this turned out to be. We have been coming up this road for years and Taynuilt is not a place we have ever stopped. Until now! Having left Oban with the express purpose of finding a scone on the way home we had been disappointed by several places that either didn’t do scones or were closed. So we were happy to see the sign for the Robin’s Nest Tearoom and decided to give it a try.

Taynuilt is actually bigger than we imagined with quite a few houses tucked away off the main road. Robins Nest04This is an old established tearoom. It has existed in various guises though e.g. a doctors surgery, at various points in its history. When we arrived it was very busy and it did not take us long to find out why .. it is a little lost treasure. Now Taynuilt folks will dispute that it is lost but it has certainly been lost to us as we have driven past many times not realising it was there.

Wifi

It is a little bit of a throwback with nothing pretentious or flashy and we got the feeling that they just specialised in what we would call “good old fashioned service’ with lots of local arts and crafts and commuRobins Nest01nity information. When we asked if they had wifi the answer was “oh no”. Somehow that response seemed perfectly fitting. In spite of this however we did manage to discover that we were to get a fifth granddaughter in January. That news may have made us look at the place through slightly rose tinted glasses .

The basket case

Unfortunately, even rose tinted glasses can’t help with the media. It’s full of stories about Scotland’s economy  being a complete basket case. Totally unable to sustain itself without the beneficence of  England. Does it ever occur to those making the argument that if it were true , which it patently is not, then presumably that state of affairs must have been brought about by the very Union that they feverishly seek to preserve. It does make you wonder at their logic.

However, everything in the Robin’s Nest was rosy and logical. Our scones were fantastic and so was everything else .. great place.

PA35 1JE               tel: 01866 822429         The Robin’s Nest

island, Top

The Puffer Bar

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The tiny island of Easdale once had a population of over 500, all of whom were employed in the slate mining industry. Slate was exported as far as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. However, the last slate was cut in the 1950s and most of the houses are now holiday homes with a steady population of around 60. Easdale island lies off another island, Seil, but you can reach Seil via the Bridge over the Atlantic.

Part of the large village green at Easdale
Part of the large village green at Easdale

There is no bridge to Easdale however so to get there from Seil you have to press two buttons simultaneously on the jetty at Ellenabeich village. This summons the little ferry boat which only takes a couple of minutes to do the crossing. Once on Easdale the whole island is car free so peace and quiet reigns supreme. Just the sound of the sea and the birds, what a great place for kids to play. However this idyll is broken every September when hordes of enthusiasts descend on the place for the annual World Stone Skimming Championships. The competition takes place in one of the old quarries. A scone at the Puffer Bar, Easdale

You have the choice of one pub, the Puffer Bar and Restaurant, take it or leave it. Luckily it is a wee gem. On a wonderful warm day like this it was like a little bit of heaven. Especially with our homebaked scones and homemade jam. Ours was bramble and lime. The scones were wonderfully light and the tea delicious. As we sit here we read that the new euro is to be printed on Greece proof paper. This really does seem like another world.

View from Ellenabeich towards Mull and the ferry terminal on the left.
View from Ellenabeich towards Mull and the ferry terminal on the left.

PA34 4TB         tel: 01852 300022     www.pufferbar.com

island, Ordinary

Atlantic Islands Centre

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The Isle of Luing (pronounced Ling) is not one we have ever been on before. We were not only excited to be visiting but also to find that in the capital, Cullipool, there was the Atlantic Islands Centre .. with a café. When we got there it had only been open a couple of weeks but was already proving to be a major hit with both islanders and visitors. Having been many years in the planning and construction it now provides a community based cultural centre for the island with loads of local history and genealogy information. A scone at the Atlantic islands Centre, Isle of LuingMost importantly, of course, it has the only café/ restaurant on the island. Prior to this, going out for a coffee would have involved a ferry trip so it is not difficult to understand why it is popular.

There are two main population centres on the island, Cullipool and Toberonochy which together amount to 90% of the population of about 200. There are no street names the houses are just numbered e.g. 17 Cullipool, and so on. As always in these ‘out of the way’ places the staff were extremely helpful and friendly. On our first visit we were served by a lovely girl on a two week holiday from Poland visiting relatives.

Downtown Toberonochy
Downtown Toberonochy

 

Hardy beasts

We were impressed that she could come over to somewhere like Luing and end up with a job. Especially when everyone on the island seems to have at least three or four jobs. Okay, like most of the jobs in the restaurant, it was on a voluntary basis, but admirable nevertheless. Unfortunately our scones were not so admirable .. seemed like they had been deep frozen or something. Despite this it is a great place.  We have no doubt that it will develop into a fantastic resource for the island. Portrait of a Luing cow

The island is probably best known for its now defunct slate mining industry. However, it is also the place where Luing cattle were first developed by the Cadzow family in 1947. A cross between Beef Shorthorn and Highland cattle. These hardy beasts and are now found all over the world in areas where the climate, like Scotland’s, can be less than balmy.

EVEL

The climate in Parliament today may be less than balmy as MPs discuss EVEL (English Votes for English Laws). Earlier this week the Scotland Bill was agreed by 58 of Scotland’s 59 MPs but failed. It was voted down by English MPs .. almost enough to make you choke on your scone.

Evening view from Cullipool
Evening view from Cullipool

 

PA34 4TX         tel: 01852 314096        www.atlanticislandscentre.com

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The Pierhouse Hotel

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We stopped off at Port Appin for a break and of course the Pierhouse Hotel is the place to go for any kind of refreshment. It is a beautiful spot with the little ferry running back and forth to the Isle of Lismore. There is always something going on .. though in a peaceful kind of way. With so many horrendous things going on all over the world this little oasis on the west coast of Scotland seems like it is on another planet. A place where everything is just fine. Grexit, Syria, Tunisia are all far far away.

And yet, even here, little niggles creep in. They tell us that Scotland cannot survive on its own. That we take more than we give to the Union. So why oh why does the party that refuses to subsidise a disabled person’s spare bedroom so desperately want to continue subsidising a whole nation. Perplexing if it wasn’t actually the other way round! A scone at the Pierhouse Hotel, AppinYou will be happy to hear that this conundrum did little to disturb the relaxed atmosphere on the shores of Loch Linnhe. Our scones were fantastic and came with lots of jam and cream,  and a big pot of coffee. The Pierhouse is a few miles off the main road but is well worth the detour. It has a superb seafood restaurant with beautiful views over the loch towards Castle Stalker, Lismore and beyond .. the place just oozes quality.

PA38 4DE     tel: 01631 730302      www.pierhousehotel.co.uk