Category Archives: Ordinary

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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

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

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

Ordinary

Canada Wood Kitchen and Bar

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This place seems to have appeared out of thin air in an area south of Falkirk which was once well and truly off the beaten track. Now, however it appears that every one is beating a track to the Canada Wood Kitchen and Bar. No wonder, it’s great! Falkirk really has to be congratulated on creating imaginative and mega visitor attractions, The Wheel, The Kelpies, The Helix. There is also a fantastic network of cycle and walking paths that crisscross the whole area and which this place is designed to fully exploit.

The building is impressive both inside and out and great to see it being well used. Walkers, cyclists as well as people coming by car just to enjoy the surroundings and the food. We had just been out for breakfast but could not resist going in just to see what it was like. Canada Wood sconeGiven our already fully sated state it was only one cherry scone between the two of us, but what a scone it was … giiiinormous. One half the size would still have been too much. Nevertheless I managed to get through my half but Pat was defeated by hers .. smaller scones would be much better. Coffee was fine and the whole place had a good, if slightly chaotic vibe.  Given time we are sure it will all settle down and become one of our regular haunts.

When I was a lad Canada Wood was where we did forestry work or beating up for the pheasant shoots on Callendar Estate. It was definitely not frequented by coffee house aficionados. Wonderful to see such entrepreneurship so we really wish this place all the luck in the world. The website is still under construction but you can catch it on FaceBook.

FK1 3AZ                 tel: 01324 610026                Canada Wood

Ordinary, Scones

The Royal Ivy Hotel

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When the Royals have created such a stooshie over the Crown Estates in Scotland it is perhaps appropriate that we are visiting the Royal Ivy Hotel in Bridge of Allan. For afternoon tea no less! Fortunately the Buckingham Palace spokesman who started all the fuss has retracted his statement saying it was a misunderstanding. Presumably so that we can relax and enjoy our scones without being tormented by thoughts of HM being upset.

The Royal Ivy is situated on the the Stirling side of town and we can only hope that since it is a ‘Royal’ establishment that the Queen might see fit to distribute some of the £150m refurb of her London pad in the direction of this place. It needs it! Strawberries at the Royal Ivy Hotel, Bridge of AllanThe dated and soulless decor is such that it kind of pervades everything.  It makes you feel a bit down … depressed even. It certainly makes you acutely aware of how much general ambience matters. A huge pity because the afternoon tea was really good.

We were offered chocolate dipped strawberries and presecco to begin with .. a very nice touch. This was followed up with one of the most generous presentations of afternoon tea that we have come across. Afternoon tea at the Royal Ivy Hotel, Bridge of AllanMore chocolate dipped strawberries, strawberry tarts, assorted sandwiches, cakes and very presentable pancakes and scones. We were offered endless top ups of prosecco, tea and coffee.

All in all it was very good value for money, the only thing letting it down was the surroundings. We hope they sort it out so that this Ivy becomes more akin to its more famous namesake. Maybe a note to the HM asking for 0.0000001% of her refurbishment budget. That would cover the cost of a decent website as well!

FK9 4HH                   tel: 01786 834166                    Royal Ivy Hotel

Ordinary, Scones

Baristas Coffee House

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I think at one time this place used to be the RB Buffet, then the Drookit Duck, then the Edge public houses. That was before being transformed into Baristas Coffee House  in Falkirk. Like so many coffee houses it faces stiff competition from the plethora of other such places that seem to spring up suddenly .. and disappear just as suddenly.  The multinationals have deep pockets and they have the art of baristaing (is that a word) down to a fine art. Independents like this have to be good to survive.

This place is certainly trying hard,  a big airy space to the front and another large area to the rear. They can certainly accommodate a fair bit of business if they need to. Nice friendly service and easy WiFi access, so plenty to like. We were just after coffee and a scone and were slightly taken aback when confronted with one of the biggest scones we have seen in a long while. It was quite something to behold and, with its dusting of sugar, held out a lots of promise. Sadly it did not live up to expectations. It was pretty solid and seemed to be lacking in taste … disappointing. Pat did not get through much before deciding to leave the rest. Pity really because Barista generally gets good reviews on TripAdvisor and we would have liked to have done the same. So bigger is not always better!

Is bigger better?

Surprisingly, to us at least, the American Presidential election has always, without exception, been won by the party with the biggest electoral budget. Maybe in the US bigger is better, however, just look where it gets them. Here it seems to be more complex. Party spending on the GE in Scotland has just been revealed and shows that in spite of spending twice as much in almost every seat, Labour still got thumped. Except in the one seat they managed to hold onto where they spent three times more than their nearest rival. In Edinburgh SW the Conservatives spent the most of any party and still managed to come third. Make of it what you will but sometimes quality matters more than size. That applies to scones … and everything else.

FK1 1HS                  tel: 01324 671222                  Baristas FB

Ordinary

The Orchard Bistro

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Today, the Secretary of State has ‘misstated his awareness of the truth’. He has refused the further powers previously promised to Scotland by Gordon Brown in the Vow. Today, Parliament voted against making  the Holyrood Parliament ‘permanent’ because apparently it is a gift from Westminster that can be withdrawn at any time. Today, given that all of this is flagrantly against the will of the Scottish people you could be forgiven for feeling the need for a scone .. or two. Hopefully to reintroduce some sense of reality.

Big and airy

Hence we find ourselves in the Orchard Hotel/Bar/Bistro, an old and well respected Falkirk establishment. When I first moved to Falkirk from Glen Isla at 9 years of age this is where me and my family spent the first three weeks in the big city! External view of the Orchard Hotel, FalkirkIt has changed a lot over the years. Such is its recent success it has now spread round the corner with a new Bistro facility. Big and airy the bistro has a good vibe though when we were there it was quiet. More than could be said for the music which was a wee bit on the loud side.
The bar also has an alfresco seating area which is great when the weather permits. A scone at the Orchard Hotel, Falkirk

The scones arrived with plenty of butter and jam and accompanied by some excellent Kimbo coffee. Scones were light and tasted exactly like homebaked scones should. Service was efficient and friendly. Well done Orchard Hotel. Your management seems to be very forward thinking. May you continue to go from strength to strength.

Magna Carta

That’s more than can be said for our UK government which seems hell bent on treating democracy with utter contempt and ending the Union it purports to support. All whilst celebrating Magna Carta at the same time. Give us strength!

FK1 1RF          tel: 01324 624567            Orchard Hotel

Ordinary

Mannerstons Café

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Mannerstons Café had only been open about two months when we popped in on our way to Hopetoun House. Perhaps because of that it looked a bit new and uninspiring from the outside .. but inside it was buzzing. It has a shop with all the usual ‘country store’ stuff, eggs, jam, vegetables, wine and beer. They also do their own ice cream. Already it has a achieved a 4.5 overall score from TripAdvisor. Internal view of Mannerstons Farm Shop Café

Cream tea

The café area is large and it has an outside sitting area for when the weather is suitable. We ordered a cream tea for two but we could have had any amount of other things. If they have a selection of different teas we certainly were not offered any. However, as it happens the tea we got was good.

Scones at Mannerstons Farm Shop CaféThe scones were homebaked and very good. Sort of crunchy on the outside and soft and light in the middle and with lots of jam and cream to go with them. There may be one or two minor teething problems (no website to speak of) but if Mannerstons continues in this vain it will be very popular.

Family silver

Not so popular is this ideologically driven government that only 37% voted for imposing massive cuts on the poor and selling off the family silver (Royal Mail, RBS) to their buddies in the City .. because they can! Who actually voted for this?

EH49 7LY       tel: 01506 834949           Mannerstons