Dornoch is a beautiful little town and, over the past few years, we have already reported on two other scones here, Gordon House and Dornoch Castle. So it was a something of a surprise when our Trossachs correspondents gave us a heads up on yet another, the Carnegie Courthouse. Many people come here for the town’s history, or the beach or just to wander among the cafés and antique shops. It’s quite busy even at this time of year. This scone like the other two are in a cluster around the Cathedral. Although the courthouse was built in 1849 it only began life as a tearoom/shop in 2013. It was named after Andrew Carnegie who was not only the richest man in the world at one time but lived locally in Skibo Castle. He was a great benefactor for the town.

Madonna and the milkman

The tearoom features a mural depicting the courtroom as it would have been when in use. Portraying some of the local faces. It’s great that as well as the likes of Carnegie, the Duke of Sutherland, Madonna (she got married in the Cathedral) and Tom Watson the golfer, there is also Janet Horn (the last witch burned in Dornoch), Bill Wright the local milkman and, most importantly, Carol MacKay the proprietor of the tearoom

So what was our third Dornoch scone like? Very good actually so there was not too much difficulty making a topscone award. Pat had cheese and I had fruit but they were both deliciously crunchy on the outside and wonderfully soft and light inside. The whole place has a good atmosphere and we were very well looked after by the staff. As you can probably gather we are fond of this town so who knows when we might find ourselves returning. Yet another Dornoch gem not to be missed.

Wonder of wonders

But what would these good folks in the above courtroom have made of the current state of the UK government? Just after the last General Election we asked you to guess how many scone blogs there would be before Theresa May had to resign. There have been quite a lot more than we had imagined. And, wonder of wonders, she is still hanging on, albeit by the skin of her teeth. It begs the question though. Just how bad does her administration have to get before she is sufficiently ashamed and does the decent thing? There are two problems a) she has no shame and b) who would replace her? Chances are, unimaginable as it is, it could be worse. In the courtroom, you can almost see the perplexed faces

IV25 3SD    tel: 01862 811632     The Carnegie Courthouse