Hawick Archives - Scones, history and a dollop of politics

This post is entitled Schloss Roxburghe 2 which is a bit unusual since it was only October when we were last here. Normally, years pass before we revisit places. In our previous visit we talked about all the ambitious building work that was taking place at the time. This time we had been informed that many of the changes had now been completed so we were back to see for ourselves.

External view of Schloss Roxburghe showing new rooms — new 58 additional rooms and the pool area

Hardships

Of course, we cannot pretend that this involved any hardship on our part. This place is definitely not noted for hardship! That said, we had hoped that the heated outdoor swimming pool, sauna and plunge pool would have been completed but no, not quite … argh! The weather has taken quite a frosty turn … ideal for a swim in a lovely warm pool. I’d even packed my Speedos! Disappointing but we reckoned we could survive that sort of hardship. But would there be any more hardships?

The spa at Schloss Roxburghe — Spa reception

Well yes, the spa area wasn’t quite finished either. But the new gym was open 24/7.

By the time we had walked the length of the gym and looked at all the apparatus for inflicting self induced torture we both felt quite light headed … we needed refreshment and somewhere to sit down.

The State Room at Schloss Roxburghe — the State room

What a State!

The State Room was the answer … another splendid addition since our last visit. A cosy log fire, very comfortable surroundings … and a bar! A place to relax with a whisky or a G&T … or even a scone.

Last time we thought the Schloss Roxburghe scones rivalled those of Fonab Castle as ‘best scone in the world‘ … quite a claim! We certainly didn’t imagine that they would have dropped their standards since October but thought we should check, just in case. We have to be rigorous … don’t we? No problem they were just as good and, of course, served perfectly by some of the friendly helpful staff. At the end of the day, it was simply a case of reinforcing our original topscone award with another!

No pampering south of the border

In the evening we had the pleasure of experiencing the brand spanking new Charlie’s restaurant. Its name commemorates a visit by Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745. He was about to set off into England with his army and presumably felt the need for some pampering. He doubtless knew he wasn’t going to find any of that where he was going.

Charlies restaurant at Schloss Roxburghe — Charlie’s restaurant

In contrast to the cosy restaurant we enjoyed last time in the old hotel, Charlie’s provides a gleaming modern dining experience. It was great and our dinner was super!

Picture of child on horseback at Schloss Roxburghe — this is how it used to be for children before iPads

Autumn/Winter Collection

During our stay, Schloss Roxburghe was playing host for the launch of Lyle & Scott’s prestigious Autumn /Winter collection. Surrounded by its own golf course and just down the road from the town of Hawick where Lyle & Scott started off in 1874, this was an ideal venue. They’d invited guests from all over the world.

All we can say is that if you are going to impress clients with everything Scotland has to offer this isn’t a bad place to do it. We actually thought that the Lyle & Scott brand had disappeared many years ago … how wrong could we be? Great to see it, alive and kicking and very much a global player.

Britain is not much a global player these days. It seems to come bottom of almost every league table and seems destined to be in recession for a long time yet. The much vaunted International Agreements with non-EU countries are actually costing us money! The whole country is grinding to a halt with industrial unrest. And just when you thought things could not get any worse, England has been eliminated from the World Cup by the ‘old enemy’, France. The economy may be disappearing down the plug hole but we’ll doubtless be treated to days and days of mindless analysis of why this calamity happened.

The invisible man

We do have new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, to sort all this out, of course … or do we? After a series of blatantly incompetent Prime Ministers we now have an invisible one. Even his own party are nicknamed him “the invisible Prime Minister“. To avoid all these rather annoying irritations we recommend moving into Schloss Roxburghe permanently. As you sip your whisky by one of the log fires you’ll be blissfully unaware of anything other than the need for another log … and even that is taken care of.

TD5 8JZ tel: ‭01573 450331 Schloss Roxburghe

///marinated.wriggled.greeting

We thought it would be nice to try out the new Borders Railway and visit Gal

the downstairs deli at Turnbull's Coffee Shop, Galashiels — the downstairs deli

ashiels. A town in which neither of us had previously spent any time. What we were totally unprepared for was the scale of the railway’s success and the effect it has had on the town.

The last scone

There are not that many tearooms here but having tried several that had completely run out of scones, in desperation, we ended up here at Turnbull’s. It’s a long established coffee house and probably the best. The girl in the ground floor deli said she thought there was a cheese scone available upstairs, so up we went and there it was … we could see it across the room, in splendid isolation under a glass dome. The last scone. We ate it, so as of that moment, scones became an extinct species in Galashiels.

Day trippers

The experts studied L-arginine effects on impotence in 1999, wherein 31% of males taking 5 grams of this supplement levitra uk are completely safe for your health and do not pose any ill effects. Except that, in case of medicine, the article will help you for sure- Introduction to Kamagra tablets- The tablet is on line levitra a pharmaceutical product manufactured by a prominent company named Ajanta Pharma. With ailments like hypertension, baldness and a myriad of sex related problems and make a person sexually active Full Article cialis 20 mg in life. It maintains mental health, muscle cialis 20 mg see over here strength, and bone health in upbeat condition. Don’t worry, some sort of reintroduction programme will probably be adopted but for this particular day, that was it .. fini, defunct, kaput, gone. A town with no scones. Now the only explanati on we can think of for this extraordinary state of affairs is the popularity of the new railway. The first domestic railway to be reintroduced in the UK for over 100 years. Loads of day-trippers descending on the town, hoovering up all the scones. Flaming day-trippers … oh no, we’re day-trippers too! Ah well, good news for Gala but it really needs to think about upping its scone production to cope with the influx. Turnbull’s, is a lovely place. First established just down the road in Hawick. They describe themselves as a family business specialising in ‘artisan fine food and drink combined with first class service’. We would not disagree with any of that.

They also make a range of their own unique blended whisky but unfortunately we did not get to sample any. However you can order it and other stuff online. Wonderful to be in place where good old fashioned principles of quality and service still seem to count for something.

Forgotten principles

Jeremy Corbyn, visited Scotland this week but seemed to have forgotten to pack his principles. Maybe, after the party conference, he just didn’t have any left! Great toilets; always a good sign, and although there is no wifi at the moment, we have been promised that it’s coming very soon. In case you are wondering, the last scone in Galashiels was excellent; topscone award. Did not see any scenery on the way home because we fell in with a couple of mad women who just talked incessantly about scones. Just joking, whoever you were, we thoroughly enjoyed the craik!

TD1 1SD tel: 01896 750577 Turnbull’s FB

Scones, history and a dollop of politics

Tag Archives: Hawick

Schloss Roxburghe 2