Monthly Archives: December 2024

Scones, Top

Inchyra Grange

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Last time we were here at the Inchyra Grange was August 2015. Scarcely seems possible that almost a decade has passed since then. Besides being a lot younger much else has changed as well!Internal view of the Inchyra Grange Hotel

Most places require 24 hours notice for afternoon tea, however, not here. Swimming at the Inchyra Grange HotelBack then we booked afternoon tea for eight adults and two grandchildren and were impressed by the way the staff were unfazed by us turning up with more than we had booked for. Ten years on and Pat and I now have six granddaughters. Four of them were with us today and after an hour or so in the swimming pool they were ready for refreshments.Internal view of the Inchyra Grange Hotel

Confusion

In our experience an afternoon tea is normally for two people so we ordered two because we felt that would be enough. Afternoon tea at the Inchyra Grange HotelToo many sweet things and we would have to scrape the kids off the ceiling. When the afternoon tea arrived, however, it was placed on the kids table. When we asked where ours was they explained that we had only ordered two. What was on the kid’s table was indeed two afternoon teas. Turned out that they do afternoon tea for one. Never heard of that … who on earth goes for afternoon tea alone??

Anyway , while the kids tucked into theirs we had to wait for them to bring another one. As they sensed our frustration, we were treated to a chorus of “the scones are sooooo delicious“. Turned out they were absolutely right. They were delicious as was everything else. Washed down with a glass of bubbly it was an easy topscone. A pastoral picture at the Inchyra Grange Hotel

Separate

We don’t want readers to run away with the idea that we put our grandchildren at a separate table because we didn’t want them at ours. Perish the thought! No,no no, it was the hotel that suggested it. It was a great suggestion!

Kids at the Inchyra Grange Hotel
So hyped after their swim and playing with their “slime” they sat at a separate table

Back in the 2015 General Election, David Cameron  had just seen off a challenge from  Ed Miliband’s Labour Party . Since then we’ve had six different PMs. In the whole of the last century we only had 19 Prime Ministers. The new ones obviously don’t have the staying power of the old ones. Anyway we are only hours away from 2025 so we hope it’s a good one for everybody.

FK2 0YB          tel: 0344 879 9044            Inchyra Grange

///scenes.upper.vase

Ordinary, Scones

Fells Coffee House

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Our hometown of Falkirk is fortunate in only being a very short drive away from Carron valley, the water supply for the town. The biggest benefit, however, is that the 15 minute drive takes you very quickly from an urban environment to one which is much more reminiscent of the Highlands. The contrast is amazing. The road also takes you over the hills to villages like Milton of Campsie where you can stop off at places like the Fells Coffee House. For a rather peculiar reason it is a very popular rendezvous for cyclists.Logo of the Fells Coffee House

The backdrop to the café is provided by the Campsie Fells range of hills. No way can these relatively modest hills be compared to the Himalayas but recently they have become a popular venue fPoster of the Tak Ma Doon roador the cycling sport of Everesting. If you, like us, are unfamiliar with the sport, let us explain. The nearby Tak-ma-Doon road tops out at 322 metres above sea level, is just over 2.5 miles long with an average gradient of 6.2%. “Everesting” is a term that describes riding the hill repeatedly to reach a total ascent equal to that of Mount Everest.

The challenge means ascending and descending the Task-ma-Doon road 34 times non stop. It normally takes in excess of 16 hours to complete. A punishing event even for the young and fit. The Fells Coffee House  caters to this cycling fraternity. As well as coffee and cakes it keeps a full range of spare inner tubes and other cycle maintenance equipment.  Sconing, rather than Everesting is more our thing … we drove.  And on this beautiful day it was perfect.Internal view of the Fells Coffee House

Sourcing

The Fells has a welcoming feel about it. They do all the usual stuff you would expect from a café like this and, of course, scones. A scone at the Fells Coffee HouseWe ordered a fruit scone which unfortunately came with English clotted cream and Italian jam. This place was fairly obviously well run so why they don’t access more locally produced produce we cannot understand. Having said that everything was delicious. Pretty close to a topscone.

Vintage view of the Fells Coffee House
The Fells Coffee House in former times. Milton of Campsie once had several corn mills as well as many illicit whisky stills
Wild West

At the moment, the world outside Milton of Campsie feels a bit like the Wild West. The US has accidentally downed one of its own £50 million fighter planes and Russia has done the same with a passenger airliner.  We’ll just drive back over the Tak-Ma-Doon and hope we don’t get hit by anything falling out of the sky!

G66 8BQ         tel: 01360 316 421.           Fells Coffee

///quail.cabbage.jolt

Ordinary, Scones

Wee Winchburgh Café

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We were here at the Wee Winchburgh Café yesterday only to find it closed. There was a notice on the door which read “Just had a baby,  closed today, open tomorrow“. Obviously we had to come back to meet this superwoman! It turned out to be a day of surprises!Internal view of the Wee Winchburgh Café

Surprise 1

Winchburgh village used to be on the main road between Falkirk and Edinburgh but it has long since been bypassed by the M9 motorway. Before the motorway we used to pass through it often. Back then it consisted of the Tally Ho Hotel and several streets of mainly miners cottages. Wall decor at the Wee Winchburgh CaféThe miners were employed in the shale oil industry … Scotland’s first oil bonanza.  If you blinked you could miss it. Little did we know that it harboured ambitions to be a city. Almost 4,000 new houses are being built as we speak. The original village has been completely consumed by what is now a ginormous building site. We couldn’t find the old village and our satnav unhelply said “unmapped area”. Eventually we had to stop and ask someone. However, when we eventually found it it was pretty much just as we remembered it with rows of little terraced houses.

When we entered the cafe the first thing we saw was a set of bagpipes displayed on the wall. A reminder to chase up our bagpipe man we talked about at the Turkish Mint Café in Stirling.

Surprise 2

Unsurprisingly the Wee Winchburgh Café is small … only three tables. When we asked the owner if she had indeed had a baby she just laughed. Turned out her daughter, who lives in Preston, had the baby and she had closed the café the day before so she could visit her new granddaughter, Sienna Rose. We were treated to some photos of the bonny baby and even a video of her sleeping.Internal view of the Wee Winchburgh Café

Surprise 3

Pat asked for a fruit scone and I thought I should try one of the cherry and almond scones on offer. Scone at the Wee Winchburgh CaféInitially, when we asked about cream she said that they didn’t have any. Then she came back and said she remembered she had some canned cream. And apparently, it was much better than the usual sort of canned cream. Normally we wouldn’t have what we call ‘scooshie’ cream but she sold it to us with her enthusiasm. However we weren’t prepared for the scones to come preloaded. They were presented  ‘ready to eat’ complete with jam and scooshie cream. Unfortunately, the cherry almond combo didn’t quite work and Pat wasn’t too keen on her fruit scone.either. Sadly no topscone but a great community café which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Wall decor at the Wee Winchburgh Café
The Broons visiting the Forth Rail Bridge
Surprise 4

As the couple at the next table were leaving and paying their bill they said that they would like to pay our bill as well. Wow! For years we’ve been trying to perfect that art of looking like an little old couple with a purse from which we would count out the pennies one by one but this was the first time anyone had actually fallen for it. Seriously, we thanked them and as they left they simply said “It’s Christmas“. Wonderful when complete strangers do things like that! Earlier our host, new grandmother and scone loader took a phone call from someone placing an order. She finished the call with a “That’s great, I’ll bring it over to you rather than you having to cross that busy road“. It was that sort of place.

Pig cruet set at the Wee Winchburgh Café
our salt and pepper
More surprises

There’s been lots going on that’s taken us by surprise: (a) Ukraine has blown up a Russian army General in downtown Moscow (b) the Church of England is having difficulty replacing the Archbishop of Canterbury because the prospective candidate seems to have been involved in the same sort of sex abuse scandals as the man he is replacing (c) the Royal Mail, started by Henry VIII in 1516, has been sold to Daniel Kretinsky a Czech billionaire. Britain is in a right old state … but that’s not a surprise!Sign for the Wee Winchburgh Café

Thank goodness for places like Wee Winchburgh Café whose heart is in the right place. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers.

EH52 6RA           01506 200659             Wee Winchburgh Café FB

///cared.childcare.watch

Ordinary, Scones

Mint Café

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You know how it is … you go into somewhere like Mint Café in Stirling for coffee and a scone and by the time you come out the world has changed. Okay, Syria to be more precise but who knows what is going to happen next. The hellish Assad regime has fallen and people are rejoicing. Mint Café signHowever, within a day of the Russians stopping their bombing of the country, Israel, Turkey and the US have started. All trying to protect their own interests but hardly an auspicious launch of a new era! There are all sorts of tensions mostly caused by slightly differing interpretations of the same religion … clerics have much to answer for! Nowhere are these tensions more evident than on the Turkish/Syria border with the third longest wall in the world separating the two countries.  Only the Great Wall of China and the US/Mexico wall are longer.Internal view of Mint Café, Stirling

Anyway, purely by accident we are here in Mint, a Turkish café. But why? Well, we were hoping to pick up a set of bagpipes in Stirling but having been unable to contact the guy who was renovating them, we decided to pay a visit to his shop. 

a light fitting in Mint Café, StirlingJust our luck, when we arrived, it wasn’t open. The word on the street, however, was that he normally opened a bit later in the day. What to do? Our solution was to go away and come back later, hence you find us here in Mint. Not only are we here but we are the only ones here. The place was deserted … just the Turkish owner busying himself behind the counter, and us. It seemed to be a place that specialised in cakes but there was a bowl full of scones on the counter … yeah, the day was taking a turn for the better!

I’ve always had a soft spot for Turkey since hitchhiking to the country in 1970 and experiencing the hospitality and kindness of the local people. Our host was no exception ,,, he made us very welcome. A scone in Mint Café, StirlingHe soon had us sorted with a scone and some coffee. Rather odd presentation but the scone was nice and warm with a very pleasant texture. It came with butter, jam and a dollop of ‘scooshie’ cream. The coffee was great but the rest maybe not so much. Ten out of ten for effort but some way short of a topscone.A wall hanging in Mint Café, Stirling

Afterwards, we made our way back the bagpipe shop. Hallelujah, it was open!

Lifestyle notice in Mint Café, Stirling
It’s not working

Turned out that our man was uncontactable because he had lost his phone. He had a new one but didn’t want to use it in case he found his old one?? And, in spite of having had the pipes for almost three months he hadn’t even started on them. He apologised profusely and promised to get on to it straight away. He would even deliver them to our house! Chaotic is the only way to describe his business operation but the workmanship is excellent so we remain ever hopeful of a delivery before Christmas. Internal view of Mint Café, Stirling

Being here in Mint made us feel a little closer to Syria. Bashar al-Assad and his family have successfully escaped to Russia. Presumably with him being an ophthalmologist he saw his downfall coming 😃. Sorry! The brand spanking new Syrian government has an uphill struggle ahead but hopefully they can magic up some real stability for the region.

FK8 1BJ           tel: 01786 357541           Mint Café TA

///bucks.agent.sculpture

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

Pitlochry Festival Theatre

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We are back home now after our short but very enjoyable break in Pitlochry. After our posts from Fonab Castle and Victoria’s we can now bring you one from Pitlochry Festival Theatre which we visited on our final day.

Advert for the Sound OF Music
The hills are alive

Currently they are putting on the Sound Of Music. Sadly though, there are no performances on two days every week and we were there on one of them. The cafe was open, however, so all was not lost. A scone coming up but first a fairy tale!

External view of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Fairy Tale

Readers could easily be forgiven for asking how a small town like Pitlochry in rural Perthshire with a population of less than 3000 has a theatre at all. The theatre could comfortable seat a fifth of the population. The story of the theatre is a bit of a fairy tale in itself and testament to one man’s vision and single minded determination.

In the early days of WWII, John Stewart, head of Skerries College in Glasgow, hid a slip of paper in a wooden post down by the River Tummel. It read ‘When peace is declared I shall return to this spot to give thanks to God and to establish my Festival’. On VE Day he did just that.

View of Port na Craig ferry site
Port-na-Craig was the site of the original ferry that crossed the River Tummel, connecting it to Pitlochry. The theatre roof can be seen behind Port-na-Craig
Whisky Galore

Because of the post war shortage of building materials he could not get permission from the government to build the theatre.

Bridge over the River Tummel
The ferry operated until 1913, when a suspension footbridge was built

As a result the theatre began life as a large tent in the garden of his Knockendarroch House. In 1952 a storm destroyed the tent almost spelling the end of the theatre. Stewart, however, formed a Society to which he gave over his house, garden and workshops. The Society was able to build a more substantial theatre at Knockendarroch and gave him permission to continue living in his own house.  Success followed success and 1959 saw the world premier of Whisky Galore – The Musical in the current building at Port-na-Craig. Incredible! And we have to arrive on a day when there’s nothing on! However, the future for the “theatre in the hills” looks bright. The new Artistic Director is none other than local boy and fierce campaigner for Scottish Independence, Alan Cumming.  Internal view of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre

The theatre itself is impressive and the cafe is a fairly typical self service facility in the foyer area. A scone at the Pitlochry Festival TheatreIt’s a large light airy space and surprisingly busy considering the time of year and the fact that there were no live performances. There was a choice of plain and fruit scones so as usual, we chose fruit. They looked as if they had loads of fruit and they did, maybe too much. Not a topscone but very enjoyable nevertheless.

Tickety boo?

Pitlochry seems like another world where everything is just fine. When you are here in the Festival Theatre it feels even more like another world.

Sign in Pitlochry
It’s a sign

In the real world, however, things aren’t quite so tickety boo. That Far Eastern beacon of democracy, South Korea, has suddenly and inexplicably declared martial law. Luckily North Korea has sent half its army to fight with Russia in Ukraine. Russia has also resumed fighting in that almost forgotten war in Syria. In Europe, France seems determined to make itself ungovernable. Across the pond, at the risk of giving banana republics a bad name America continues with its system of Presidential pardons. Why? The hills are alive with the sound of people scratching their heads!

PH16 5DR           tel: 01796 484626         Pitlochry Theatre

///charge.choppers.talents