Kingsbarns Distillery

27 April 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

The point of today was to catch up with our Bathurst correspondents. We haven’t seen then since 2019 but they are over from Australia visiting their daughter and her family in St Andrews. This trusty pair have been responsible for much of our sconological knowledge of New South Wales with posts from Myrtle House, the Blue Wren Bush Cafe, Clancy’s Cafe and many more. Typically, they arrived on bikes for our meeting at Rufflets Hotel in Fife.

The Bathurst correspondents at Rufflets Hotel — Rendezvous with our Bathurst correspondents at Rufflets

It was fantastic to find them in good form and catch up on all their news. After a great chat, all too soon, we had to bid them farewell. We decided to try and find nearby Kingsbarns Distillery.

Crest of the Wymss Family — Crest of Clan Wemyss

This is definitely golf country. Thousands of golfers from all over the world make the pilgrimage to St Andrews, where it all started. It’s just seven miles away from Kingsbarns. It was a former golf caddie, Douglas Clement, who realised that golfers also loved the amber nectar but there was no handy distillery for them to visit. He decided that a disused building in Kingsbarns would be ideal. After a shaky start bogged down in financial woes, the Wemyss family (pronounced Weems), who live nearby in Wemyss Castle, came to the rescue. The distillery eventually opened in 2014. Kingsbarns got its name in 1519 when the barns here supplied the royal palaces at Falkland and Crail.

Good deals

When we arrived it was very busy with German and French tourists but it soon settled down when their buses left. The cafe is light and airy and they had scones – plain, fruit and cheese. You could get a bowl of soup packaged with a cheese scone so we went for that. We were going to share the cheese scone and then share a fruit scone with our tea later.

The lady serving us said she would put it through as two soup/ scones because that would be cheaper for us … how thoughtful! We thoroughly enjoyed everything although they don’t have a kitchen so everything has to be brought in from external bakers Fisher & Donaldson in St Andrews.

Doves and pigeons

Not a topscone but it’s great to see yet another new distillery trying to cater to the seemingly insatiable global demand for Scotch. Biggest market last year was France with India not far behind. Third was the US … come on guys, we thought it was “America first”. We did our bit by buying a bottle of Kingsbarns Doocot whisky as well as a bottle of their Darnley’s gin. A ‘doocot’ (part of a building housing doves and pigeons) forms part of the distillery building.

Kingsbarns Golf clubhouse — the back of the clubhouse on Kingsbarns Golf Links

We had been advised to go and visit Kingsbarns beach. Thinking it was simply a matter of walking towards the sea we inadvertently ended up trudging through Kingsbarns Gold Links. It’s a famous course which has hosted many major tournaments … the helipad was a bit of a giveaway! Goodness, if we had known we wouldn’t have bothered with the car! Golf has been played here since 1793 and the 12th hole is a 606 yard monster. I only played golf as a youth. That was because I was too immature to realise it was a huge waste of time. Mind you, much of my golfing career was spent in the bushes looking for my ball.

We did eventually make it to the beach which stretches as far as the eye can see in both directions. However, the weather today was coming in from Greenland and wasn’t too conducive to building sand castles.

Contentment

On the way home we paid a visit to Crail which was as quaint as ever.

People in the Kingdom of Fife are an independent lot and quite content with their lot. Once, when a Fife man was asked if he had ever been abroad, responded with “I once knew a man who had been to Crail“. Maybe we should all try to be a bit more content like that man from Fife and not be surprised when other people from Sudan and elsewhere want to see if they can find contentment.

It has been another great day. We are sooo lucky to live in Scotland with all this stuff on our doorstep! The Doocot is lovely, by the way, light with a hint of pepperiness … a good breakfast whisky, cheers!

KY16 8QE. tel: 01333 451300. Kingsbarns Distillery

///bulky.orders.cuddled

Ordinary, Scones

The Pier Cafe (revisited)

23 April 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 6 Comments

The Pier Cafe in Stronachlacher is one our Trossachs correspondents favourite haunts and the last time we were here we were with them. Not today, though, they are sunning themselves in Spain. However, diligent, as ever, they have just sent a report from the Lemon Tree in Mijas which they last reviewed in 2019.

The Lemon Tree, Mijas — The Lemon Tree Cafe, Andalusia

In their own words “Greetings from Mijas. The Lemon Tree is still here maintaining a good standard with Scones,Jam and Clotted Cream. As on previous trips this is so far the only source for scones that we have discovered in Andalucia. The search continues“. Now that’s dedication … all that way just to check a scone!

External view of the Pier Cafe, Stronachlacher — Looking over to Factor’s Island with the trees. Rob Roy MacGregor imprisoned the Duke of Montrose’s factor here when the Duke confiscated the MacGregor lands as punishment for not supporting the Act of Union in 1707

Meanwhile, Stronachlacher is also basking in sunshine though probably not as warm as Mijas. The Pier Café is sometimes described as Scotlands most picturesque cafe and it’s easy to see why. The views over Loch Katrine are superb. To get here requires an eleven mile drive over a single track dead end road. The road ends at Stronachlacher. You pass Loch Ard, Loch Chon and Loch Arklet on the way so it isn’t any kind of hardship on a day like today. You can, however, get here by bicycle or take one of the cruise boats from the other end of the loch.

Small world

We were here with one of our neighbours who thoroughly enjoyed the drive and, of course, we were all looking forward to some lunch. The cafe has always been great but it is now under new management so it was going to interesting. No worries it was all delicious. The fruit scones we had to finish were delicious as well. They had been warmed and came with raspberry jam and little cubes of butter. No cream, so not quite a topscone but a very good effort. We were served by a super friendly lady from Kinlochard who actually knew our Trossachs correspondents. We didn’t dare tell her they were eating someone else’s scones in Spain.

As we were about to leave we could see the Lady of the Lake approaching the pier. Myself and our neighbour had positioned ourselves near the railings to watch proceedings when a freak wave came over and soaked us both. We were both absolutely drenched! A situation, which wasn’t helped in the slightest by the hysterical laughter coming from Pat and everyone else watching.

Judgement

You know how sometimes you just can’t take to someone. You don’t really know them but for some reason, which you can’t quite put a finger on, you just don’t like them. For us, Dominic Raab, the former deputy Prime Minister, was one such person. Why Rishi Sunak appointed him in the first place is beyond comprehension. Now he has resigned following a report into his unacceptable behaviour towards his staff and others. Typically, perhaps, he hasn’t gone gracefully. It must be galling for these guys, however, when the seat at your desk isn’t even cold before someone else is sitting in it. Disposable politicians!

R.I.P

And we have just heard that Sir Les Patterson has died. Now there was a diplomat if ever there was one! We can only imagine what he would have had to say about people, like Dominic Raab who take themselves so seriously.

FK8 3TY tel: 01877 386374 Pier Cafe

///greyhound/files.odds

ps: Just as we were congratulating our Trossachs correspondents on their dedication we received a note from our Texas correspondents in Corpus Christi. They said “A top scone, known here in Texas as a biscuit, butter from Kansas and jam from Ohio!”. Honestly, what is wrong with Americans? They can’t call things by their proper names, they can’t spell things correctly, they can’t drive on the correct side of the road, we could go on. 😀Hopefully some American readers will get in touch to tell us what is wrong with them!

Scones

Pleased To Meet You

20 April 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 9 Comments

Today we are super pleased to be in Pleased To Meet You. No idea why it has that name but it’s a cafe/restaurant in Morpeth, Northumberland. It’s our first visit to the town though we’ve actually been here many times before but that was just passing through on the train going to London. We’ve never got off the train here. The Sunday Times says it is one of the best places to live in the UK so we thought we should investigate. Morpeth was our destination for today.

Department stores

Turns out the Sunday Times may well be right. We were very pleasantly surprised. The town dates back to the 12th century and has managed to retain its traditional market-town charm combined with some classy streets. It even boasts a couple of department stores, a thing of the past in our home town. The Sanderson Arcade even has an M&S store … Pat was impressed and maybe a little jealous.

Aberdeen Angus bull sculpture, Morpeth — This magnificent actual size beast is an Aberdeen Angus bull. It commorates times when they would be brought from Scotland to be sold in Morpeth.

Negotiating with Westminster

In the local park there is a statue to suffragette, Emily Davison. She was quite a lady: arrested nine times; force fed when she went on hunger strike; locked herself in a prison cell only to be flooded out by a hosepipe wielding magistrate; attacked a church minister she mistook for Lloyd George. She died after throwing herself in front of the King’s horse in the 1913 Derby. All this just to get a vote. She won eventually but her story does indicate what it still takes to negotiate with the turgid Westminster governments to this day.

Anyway after some delightful sunny hours wandering the sights of Morpeth it was scone time. There were numerous options but we had had a recommendation for Pleased To Meet You. It’s in a historic 17th century building which used to be the Queens Head Hotel. Pleased To Meet You, or PTMY, has adapted it and stripped it back to its original structure. It is vast. Take a ball of string if you want to find your way back from the toilets.

Galloping girls

We managed to get a little table at a window so we could see what was happening outside on the street. It’s great to people watch when you are in a new place. At one point, through all the traffic, a young girl galloped past at high speed on a horse smoking a cigarette. Wow, no elegant trotting in this neck of the woods, it’s a full blown gallop or nothing! Nobody batted an eyelid so presumably it’s an everyday occurrence. By the way, it was the girl smoking the cigarette, not the horse!

Eventually we were distracted by the arrival of our fruit scone. We could have opted for one of their fully loaded scones which actually looked quite good but we decided to be purists and do it for ourselves.

It was wonderfully warm and had a super crunchy exterior and a soft interior with lots of lovely fruit. Plentiful jam and cream as well as delicious coffee and friendly service. What was not to like? Nothing! An easy topscone. We liked everything about PTMY, it seemed to have everything. The staff must walk miles each day but they were unstintingly helpful and friendly.

Blow me down

When we left we walked a short way down the street and came on the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum … what?

Painting of French bagpipes — President of the Provence Parliament playing the musette … bit overdressed but looks like a lovely chap

What’s that doing here in the North of England? Although normally associated with Scotland there are lots of different kinds af bagpipe and Northumberland has it’s very own pipes. Totally different from the Scottish variety which at one time were outlawed by the English as a weapon of war. Just being found in possession of bagpipes was a penal offence. The Northumberland pipes, like the Irish pipes have a much softer sound and as far as we know have never been outlawed. The museum was very well set up and definitely worth a visit even if you have no particular interest in bagpipes.

Self raising

Most readers will have heard of Be-Ro self raising flour. But did you know that the inventor, Thomas Bell, lived and worked in Morpeth. He called his invention Bell’s Royal flour, or Be-Ro for short. The things you learn on allaboutthescones.com!

Competitions

When we travelled down to Morpeth we met a chap who joined us at Berwick-on-Tweed. He was super excited to be going to Leeds to support his team playing against Liverpool. The score line ended up Leeds 1 Liverpool 6. Oh dear, hope he is okay! It can’t be any worse than the coverage we are being subjected to of all things Monarchy. First we have to watch Charles and his floozie being fitted with new hats followed, a few days later, by the Eurovision Song Contest. Impossible to decide which is the most surreal and ridiculous.

Black Bull Pub, Morpeth — For a moment in Morpeth we weren’t sure where we were … then we were! It was the Black Bull!

Morpeth gave us a great day out and it looked like there were plenty more scones to be explored so, who knows, we might be back!

NE61 1NB tel: 01670 333970 PTMY

///casually.hockey.subsystem

Scones, topweird

Greens at the Courthouse

16 April 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Although this post comes from Greens at the Courthouse in Dornoch our target destination for today was the little village of Embo in Sutherland and yet another beach.

The beach at Embo — Part of the beach at Embo

In 1245 the Battle of Embo took place here between the Scots and the Vikings. Honestly, if you have to have a battle this is a great place to have one … there must have been a lot of kicking sand in faces. And in 1988, without a drop of blood being shed, Embo declared itself independent from the rest of the UK. They even issued their own currency, the Cuddie (two Cuddies to the Pound). Okay it was only for one day and it was to raise funds to create a community centre. Scotland could learn a thing or two from Embo but, of course, our currency is destined to be the smackeroonie!

Sconeless Granny?

Embo is where Grannie’s Heilan’ Hame is and if ever there was a place guaranteed to provide a good scone this has to be it … surely? The granny in question was Kate Mackay who, in 1952, went to live in Boston USA. The well known song reflects on visits to her Embo home. To hear a rousing version click here.

Where the heather bells are blooming, just outside Grannie’s door,
Where as laddies there we played, in days of long ago.
‘Neath the shadow of Ben Braggie and Golspie’s lordly stane.
How I wish that I could see my Grannie’s Hielan’ Hame.

Grannie's Heilan' Hame in Embo — Grannie’s Heilan’ Hame is now much extended at the centre of a huge caravan park

When we went to the restaurant to ask if they had any scones or cakes we were informed “No the closest we would have to scones or cakes is toast“… what? Don’t think granny would have been too happy about that. Crest fallen we retreated a mile down the beach to Dornoch and Greens at the Courthouse.

A pirate ship in Embo — Before leaving Embo we managed to board a pirate ship … mega exciting!

The milkman

We were here in 2017 when it was called the Carnegie Courthouse. Apparently the combined problems of Brexit and COVID were too much for the previous owners. Since earlier this year it is under new management. Still looks pretty much the same with its large painting on the back wall of the courthouse in action. Madonna had her son, Rocco, christened directly across the street in Dornoch Cathedral and then got married to Guy Ritchie the following day in nearby Skibo Castle. They are both featured as well as a host of other celebrities including the local milkman.

If you remember, our previous scone was at the Rosemarkie Beach Cafe and it was white chocolate and cranberry. Here it was white chocolate and cherry. Is there a white chocolate theme going on up here in the Highlands?

Premierships measured in scones

We’ve actually had a few other Dornoch scones at Gordon House and Dornoch Castle but back, when we were last here in late 2017, we were contemplating how many more scones we could write before Theresa May’s eventual demise. She was definitely on a shaky peg at that time but nevertheless she lasted longer than expected largely because there was no one of any merit to follow her. Boris Johnson amply proved that point by following her! Likewise he lasted longer than expected because there still wasn’t anyone of merit in the Tory party but eventually he became too much an embarrassment even for them. He was followed by Liz Truss and we only managed to write one scone before she was out on her ear after a couple of weeks. She will always be remembered as the proud owner of that record … One Scone Liz.

Our scone fell into the weird scone category but was really good. Even Pat, definitely sceptical at first, ended up heaping praise on it. She wouldn’t normally contemplate anything to do with cherries. I always have to eat the cherry on top of her empire biscuits. That’s fairly typical of the hardships we endure together. A topweird scone was eventually awarded … well done Greens at the Courthouse.

We paid for our scone contactless but can’t wait to pay for them in smackeroonies!

IV25 3SD tel: 01862 811241 Greens at the Courthouse

///slacker.estuaries.flipping

Scones, weird

Rosemarkie Beach Cafe

14 April 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 13 Comments

Readers could be forgiven for thinking that our life is just one long care-free jollification because that’s not too far away from the truth. First we were meeting friends in Shetland, then wined and dined by old friends at Cairn Lodge. Now we are relaxing for a few days with our family near Inverness. Mind you ‘relaxing’ is really nothing more than a somewhat forlorn ambition when you have six granddaughters to contend with. Five of them are with us today and they seem to have boundless energy. A beach seemed like a good bet if we were to have any hope of tiring them out. Hence this post comes from the Rosemarkie Beach Cafe on the Black Isle.

Rosemarkie beach — View from the Rosemarkie Beach Cafe and an intrepid grandchild off for a swim

Things are just a little different in this part of the world. The Black Isle isn’t an island and it’s not black. It’s a peninsula sandwiched between the Cromarty Firth and the Beauly Firth. We think the ‘black’ derives from its rich dark soil. For such a beautiful part of the country it’s difficult to believe that it was an important player in the North Sea oil industry. Many of the oil rigs were built here in the 60s and 70s and now some of them lie redundant in these sheltered firths having served their purpose as we all try to go ‘green’.

With the grandchildren on the beach or swimming in the sea there was nothing left for us to do but have a scone. The speciality of the house was white chocolate and cranberry so we thought we had better try one. We sat on the terrace area where we could keep an eye on the children … we’re not totally irresponsible! Jam didn’t seem appropriate for such an exotic scone so we just had butter. In spite of looking a bit on the insipid side it was surprisingly nice. We could taste a hint of chocolate and the cranberries made it deliciously moist. Not a topscone but definitely a bit of a weird one.

Nobody at home?

Beach at Rosemarkie Beach Cafe — Dolphin spotters

Later we walked along the beach to a spot where the kids could watch for dolphins with their binoculars. Great excitement when some suddenly appeared following a boat out in the bay. It’s a popular area for dolphin spotting but even at that, they were really lucky to see them. If that wasn’t exciting enough we then took on an even harder task … looking for fairies! The Fairy Glen lies just behind the cafe and was a delightful walk. We didn’t actually see any fairies but there was plenty of evidence. They weren’t faraway though because one little house had a couple of deck chairs outside where they had obviously been sunbathing earlier. Apparently there’s some doubt about whether it is good to actually see fairies and, of course, you have to respect their privacy. Dolphins would have to do for today.

What planet?

Shells in the form of the Himalayas — Grandchildren’s representation of the Himalayas at the seaside

Meanwhile, away from Rosemarkie and fairies it has just been revealed that the UK’s £200m plan to export all refugees to Rwanda has had zero effect. The number of people crossing the Channel from France in rubber dingys is exactly the same as last year … surprise, surprise! Meanwhile the entire population of France seems to be rioting because the pension age has been raised from 62 to 64. What planet are they living on? Joe Biden has completed a 17 hour visit to N. Ireland most of which he spent asleep. Then he went to the Republic and ‘home’ to Co Mayo. Why do all American presidents have to come from Ireland. Is it a pre-condition? Even Obama was from Co. Offaly?

In the UK the doctors are on strike and now the the civil service is to go on strike as well. Think we’ll just stay here in the Fairy Glen.

IV10 8UW tel: 07923 402647 Rosemarkie Beach

///blown.response.loafing

Scones, Top

Cairn Lodge

3 April 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 7 Comments

Shetland seems like a distant but very fond memory now. We will always remember the friendliness of the people there. These days there’s a tendency for people to be a bit self-absorbed so it was great to see a healthy spirit of community on these islands. Anyway, now it’s back to reality. Although we would have a cheek to call Cairn Lodge in Auchterader, reality!

If it is reality then we are having a very soft landing. Today we were invited for breakfast by friends which was fabulous. And now we are at Cairn Lodge because other friends have invited us for afternoon tea. How lucky are we?

One of our aunts really liked Cairn Lodge so we used to come here years ago. Since then it has been taken over by Aurora Hotels and they have completely revamped it to become a luxury destination. Probably just as well because its next door neighbour is the well known haunt of the rich and famous, Gleneagles Hotel.

Friends to the rescue

It might be an age related thing but ‘time’ seems to play tricks on us these days. Huge amounts of it seem to simply disappear. We haven’t seen these friends since they rescued us from a car crash near their home … and that was over six years ago! Incredible! Ironically, the car that crashed into us was racing to try and catch the ferry from Aberdeen to Shetland. Nobody seriously hurt but our car was completely wrecked. Our friends, however, galloped to the rescue. They fed and watered us then insisted on delivering us to our destination many miles away in Pitlochry. Much water has flowed under the bridge since then so there was a mega amount of stuff to catch up on!

The young lady looking after us was superb and within two shakes of a lamb’s tail she was filling our glasses with bubbles and presenting us with an absolutely delicious artichoke based amuse-bouche. Then came a three tier stack of afternoon tea. Two of them between the four of us as well as a separate plate of sandwiches. Sometimes we think that afternoon teas are misjudged in that there is often too much of everything. We thought this one was judged perfectly. Separate little pots of jam and clotted cream completed the presentation. It probably goes without saying that everything was delicious and the scones were no exception. There was a plain scone and a whisky soaked fruit scone for each of us.

Harmony

Thinking about it now, it seems unbelievable that, in Scotland, this is the first whisky soaked scone we’ve ever come across. Lovely and warm, nice and crunchy on the outside and a delicate soft interior with that ever so subtle hint of the amber nectar. Two of our favourite things brought together in perfect harmony! So good they almost made our ‘totallyeffinbrilliantscone’ category!

Not so brilliant perhaps was Scotland’s new First Minister, Humza Yousaf’s first week in his new job. Many have expressed disappointment but we feel he needs to be given a chance. He has a mountain to climb! Isn’t it peculiar that all political parties recognise Scotland as a nation yet refuse to give us permission to determine our own future. What sort of logic is that? It’s also a bit odd that we now have Humza Yousaf, a practicing Muslim of Pakistani extraction and Rishi Sunak, a practicing Hindu of Indian extraction fighting over Scottish independence. You couldn’t make it up!

Today has been fantastic and it is all down to our wonderful friends. With friends like ours and whisky soaked scones, what more could we possibly ask for?

PH3 1LX tel: +44 1764 661095 Cairn Lodge Hotel

///tonsils.plan.calibrate

Scones, history and a dollop of politics

Monthly Archives: April 2023