Tag Archives: Inverness

Ordinary, Scones

Balbirnie House

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The other day, when we told a friend that we were going to Balbirnie House for scones and a seven course dinner, he said “You lucky bloggers” … at least, we’re pretty sure that’s what he said. Although the seven course dinner with matching wine flight was quite enticing what swung it for us was the promise of a cream tea on arrival. How could we resist?

The  hotel is only a thirty minute drive from home, in the Kingdom of Fife. “A beggar’s banquet fringed with gold“.. that’s how James VI of Scotland once described Fife. The “gold” referred to the lovely beaches all along its coastline. Balbirnie House is in the village of Markinch in central Fife … so that’ll be the begger’s banquet then! Could this be an omen for our dinner?

The Orangery at Balbirnie House
the Orangery

We did not want our cream tea to spoil our appetite for our ‘banquet’ so we arrived early in the afternoon. The spacious Orangery was where it was served. Scones at Balbirnie HouseOur scones were very good. A nice crunchy outer layer combined with a warm soft interior … just the way we like them. Plenty jam and cream so what was the problem? Just the size. Normally we expect to get two relatively small scones with a cream tea but these were just too big. Pat only managed one. I did my best with the second but was eventually beaten into submission. And there was another problem!

Size is everything?

The coffee was Nespresso which meant that it was good but served in small Nespresso cups. Even though we could get as many cups as we liked, we don’t think that these pod machines are appropriate for situations like this. It just seemed a bother to keep asking for more. A nice big pot of coffee is much better. Argh, so the scones were too big and the coffees were too small. Are we turning into grumpy old bloggers?

Internal view of Balbirnie House
after dinner drinks by the fire
Seven

Anyway, us ‘lucky bloggers’ had to report later on for dinner. If we couldn’t manage a couple of scones what would we be like with a seven course dinner. Logo of Balbirnie HouseAs we get older we no longer seem as able for huge feasts, hence we normally share everything. No need for sharing here though! Each course was ideally sized and consequently we got through all the courses without a problem. Helped, of course, by four different specially selected wines.

However, by the time we were finished we were absolutely stuffed.  We had to retire to one of the lounges for recuperation by a big log fire. This blogging game cannot be taken lying down … or maybe it should be?. No, it requires copious amounts of grit and determination, not to mention stamina! Honestly, after eight years of doing this, we are in the peak of condition … don’t scoff!Main entrance at Balbirnie House

Rishi Sunak, the latest Prime Minister through that revolving door at 10 Downing Street, made his first visit to Scotland the other day. Currently he is presiding over a disastrous situation of strikes across the entire public sector. A situation skilfully crafted over thirteen years of Tory rule by his predecessors.

To celebrate his sojourn north of the border, he and Scotland’s First Minister met for dinner in Inverness. We don’t know how many courses! Rishi has the honour of being Nicola Sturgeon’s fifth Prime Minister since she came to power. She seems to be collecting them like the Queen used to do. He seems to have survived the experience and emerged relatively unscathed but probably with several fleas in his ears. No point in going through the promises made because promises from Westminster are not worth the paper they are written on these days. Actually, not just these days, as long as we can remember!

Internal view of Balbirnie House
The bar

If you ever get the chance to experience one of Balbirnie’s dinner you should take it. Great experience and great value.

KY7 6NE    tel: 01592 610066     Balbirnie

///submitted.healers.students

Ordinary, Scones

Dores Inn

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Here we are in the tiny village of Dores on the shores of Loch Ness and, not only that, we are still in the EU. After months of fever pitch Brexit guessing, the delay in leaving has left the media wallowing in a sea of nothingness. Thankfully, in order to give the hacks something to do, an invisible black hole has miraculously appeared voraciously sucking in the orbiting wreckage of political careers and credibility. Notre-Dame has also done the media a massive favour by simply burning down. Many years ago, Notre-Dame and its magnificent stone flying buttresses made us realise that maybe we are not as smart as we like to think these days. It’s all been done before even without the aid of modern technology. Anyway, we have gone from 24/7 coverage of Brexit to zero, it’s almost as if it was all just a bad dream.

External view of Dores Inn, Loch Ness
Dores Inn from the beach

Nessie

Does any of this matter in Dores when you have six miniature people to look after? Not a bit of it! In fact after a walk along the beach, keeping a close eye on the water for Nessie, we had nothing other than scones on our minds.

Internal view of Dores Inn, Loch Ness

Unrecorded deaths

Dores Inn is a great wee pub/restaurant, very much at the center of this community. At one time, almost too much at the center of the community. Around here, in times gone by, it was common for deaths not to be recorded at all. Apparently funerals, especially for those of some importance, could become quite riotous … much food and drink was taken. People feared dying simply because of the cost. At the time it was said that it was dangerous to be ill, expensive to die, and ruinous to have a funeral.

A scone at Dores Inn, Loch NessHowever, today in the glorious sunshine we are all very much alive and our only expense will be lunch and a scone. Their beer garden is rather cleverly called the OutDores Inn. However, even though the sun was shining there was a cool breeze coming in off the loch. We were fortunate to get a table inside that could accommodate all fourteen of us. Service was great and we were soon all catered for and Pat and I were sharing a scone. No cream but the scone itself was very good. No topscone unfortunately but we thoroughly enjoyed our time at Dores and look forward to a repeat visit sometime soon.

Unbelievably, Nessie did not make an appearance … maybe tomorrow? An appearance would certainly have displaced black holes and Notre-Dame as headline news. We are ‘almost’ missing the horrendous wall to wall coverage of Brexit. If they keep this up perhaps the whole sorry mess will just be forgotten about? Or perhaps not!

IV2 6TR.         tel: 01463 751203           Dores

///investors.nightlife.poet

island, Scones, Top

Judith Glue Café

It’s our last day on Orkney. Although the wind is still blowing as hard as ever we are already feeling sad at the prospect of leaving this magical island.

The Gloup, Orkney
The Gloup

We haven’t managed to get onto any of the smaller islands like Hoy or Papa Westray, partly because there is just so much to do and see on Mainland and partly because of time constraints. Also the weather has done absolutely nothing to encourage us to board a small boat and head out across the sea! Perhaps another visit with more time is called for? The Brough of Deerness, another prehistoric settlement, was to be our target destination today but when we reached the beginning of the path it became pretty obvious that the clifftop route in such strong winds would just be too tricky. Instead we contented ourselves with a visit to The Gloup, a long sea cave where the roof has collapsed … if you would like to visit just click here.

Insurance claims

Close by is the Covenanter’s Memorial where, in 1679, more than 200 Scottish Covenanter prisoners were drowned when their ship ‘The Crown of London’ was dashed on the rocks as they were being transported to Jamaica to become slaves. All the crew escaped but the prisoners were battened down in the hold with no hope of escape. There was no compensation for escaped prisoners. Cruel, we know, but do you think the captain might have been a Tory?

Scone time meant we had to go back to Kirkwall and this time to the Judith Glue Café. It is directly opposite St Magnus Cathedral, founded in 1135 and known as ‘The Light in the North’ … truly magnificent! Interior of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall,OrkneyJudith Glue comes from a very entrepreneurial family that has stuck together (sorry) to run lots of businesses around Orkney and further afield. This is actually quite a large shop selling everything – clothes, art, jewellery and antiques. It complements another shop she runs in Inverness. At the back of the shop you come to the café/restaurant area which is quite big in itself. They pride themselves on supporting the local community and 60% of everything they sell is from the island. And that includes the clothing, the jewellery and the food. Would we find Rhodda’s Cornish Cream here, no!

Old fashioned beliefs

We decide to have what they call a ‘Peedie Cream Tea’. In this part of the world you see the word ‘peedie’ everywhere and applied to all sorts of things. Transpires that it simply means ‘small’. OA scone at Judith Glue, Kirkwall, Orkneyur Peedie Cream Tea cost about £8 and for that we got two sandwiches of our choice as well as a scone of our choice together with jam and cream and tea or coffee. It was all perfectly delicious and would you believe it, another topscone! That makes a clean sweep of topscones for Orkney. Testament, we think, to their old fashioned believes in good friendly service and self reliance. The toilets here have interesting signs for the ‘ladies’ and ‘gents’. We think both look particularly attractive.Viking man and woman at Judith Glue, Kirkwall, OrkneyAlso a great advert for Old Orkney whisky.

Stromness whisky advertisment at Judith Glue, Kirkwall, OrkneyPat ended up with her bird list totaling a very healthy forty nine … excellent considering we didn’t see any of the usual culprits – blue tits, chaffinches, sparrows etc. Perhaps our biggest surprise was the number of swallows still flying around at this time of year. They have a much longer journey than us ahead of them!

Surprises

This really is a wonderful island. It has been full of surprises … not least of which was the following morning at 7am when we drove from Stromness to St Margaret’s Hope to catch our ferry. In a flat calm! C’est la vie!

KW15 1DH         tel: 01856 874225     Judith Glue Real Food Café

Ordinary, Scones

Café Aroma

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The A9, between Perth and Inverness, is a Marmite kind of road … you either love or hate it. Most people hate it and we are with them. Having only short stretches of dual-carriageway it can be extremely frustrating when you can only go as fast as the slowest thing on the road. On our way north, the road was so busy we barely got above 45mph for most of the way … arrrgghh! On the way south however, because we had to do a drop-off at Inverness airport, we decided to carry on to Nairn then down the A939. It takes you through Granton-on-Spey, Aviemore and Newtonmore.

Slumdog Millionaire

Our scone-stop this time was the Aroma Café in Kingussie. In gaelic, the name ‘Kingussie’, means ‘head of the pine forest’ and its main claims to fame are a) the ruins of the nearby infantry barracks at Ruthven which was destroyed by Bonnie Prince Charlie’s forces in 1746, after Culloden b) Guinness Book of Record’s claim that the Kingussie shinty team is the most successful sKingussie 02aporting team of all time c) the town’s part in the film Slumdog Millionaire. The question was, would the Aroma Café add to this list by getting a much coveted topscone award? Inside, it is a wee bit tired looking and initially we had problems getting any of the staff to notice that we had come in but, once they did, we were looked after very well. Kingussie 04

The scones, when they came, had been warmed to within an inch of their lives … quite hot. Maybe no bad thing in itself, however, too much fruit and a heavy base  meant only one thing. No award ceremonies going on here any time soon. On the plus side they did have a wide range of jams (all pre-packaged) and there was also a tub of clotted cream .. from Cornwall?? It’s difficult to say how the A9 has affected places like the Aroma Café.

We can remember when all traffic came thundering through the High Street. Now it’s much quieter … hardly any cars. On the other hand, hardly any of that thundering traffic ever stopped here. Maybe it doesn’t make that much difference. Whatever, the Aroma will have to up its game if it wants us to stop off here in future. Kingussie 01

Towel throwing?

Now that we are heading south again we are beginning to see election posters for parties other than the SNP. Further north it was glaringly obvious that the lampposts etc only carried SNP posters. We went coast to coast and never saw a single poster for any other party. Very strange, have they thrown in the towel already?

PH21 1HZ    tel: 01540 661020    Cafe Aroma FB

Ordinary, Scones

John MacNabs Bar & Bistro

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Logo at John MacNabs Bar & Bistro, InvernessIt is not that often we are in Inverness as usually we are just passing through. Today, however, although again on our way to somewhere else, we have stopped off to see what the city has to offer. As it happens, today, the capital of the Highlands is bathed in glorious spring sunshine. The river Ness runs through the city centre and on its banks we came across John MacNabs Bar & Bistro. It’s part of the Columba Hotel complex. It has an outside seating area which was very welcome on such a warm day.

Apricot jam?

No time was wasted in getting some scones ordered and they duly arrived nice and warm, with lots of jam and cream. Normally we expect to get either strawberry or raspberry jam but at MacNabs it was apricot? Pat exchanged her’s for strawberry but I thought I would live adventurously and stuck with what I had been given. I enjoyed it but not sure if it will catch on as a substitute for the more traditional preserves. A scone at John MacNabs Bar & Bistro, InvernessLovely friendly service but our scones were of the bought-in variety and although they tasted fine they were nothing to write home about.

The news today is of course about the upcoming, increasingly boring, election. Also of hundreds of people losing their lives crossing the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy. Sitting in the sunshine by the river in Inverness it is difficult to imagine what these people are going through. Their desperate attempts to better their lives, is another world entirely. In the circumstances, it seems almost immoral to be writing about something as frivolous as scones.

Old fashioned

Most will have never heard of scones so perhaps it is to be hoped that some of the survivors may eventually be able to discover the pleasure of scones. In that respect alone their lives will have become better. Maybe they could even do it in Inverness, who knows? MacNabs even give you a biscuit with your coffee and a shortbread biscuit with your scone. Nice touch but maybe a little unnecessary. They also serve on slate. Call us old fashioned but we cannot think what is wrong with a good old plate. It’s very pleasant sitting bathed in sunshine by the river but this is probably not the best scone in Inverness … nor the worst.

IV3 5NF    tel: 0871 3769900      McNabs