Tag Archives: Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham

Scones, Uncategorized

Karma Hotel on the Lake

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This post from Karma Hotel on the Lake is a wee bit unusual. No scones were harmed. In fact, scones don’t feature at all except by their absence. “What are they on about now?” we hear you cry. Well, let us try and explain.

Lostness

It’s a lovely February day and we are out on one of our rambling drives. Pat is quite used to them now. We start off heading in one direction then get diverted, for one reason or another, onto a road we’ve never been on before. Inevitably this leads to an element of lostness … is that a word? Sat Nav isn’t much use if you don’t have any particular destination in mind. Pat used to make worried enquiries like “Are we lost?” but she doesn’t anymore. She knows that we will eventually end up somewhere. I used to pretend I knew where we was going but she quickly saw through all of that.

Suffice to say that after several miles of travelling along very narrow roads we emerged in a place that we recognised.  And it wasn’t too far from here. The Lake Hotel is in a lovely setting on the shores of Scotland’s only lake. It has long been on our radar. However, although absolutely positive we knew where it was when we got to the end of the driveway the sign simply said “Karma”. Eh? We were in the right place but it turned out that the hotel had recently been acquired by the Karma Group. It has luxury resorts all over the world.

Internal view of the Karma Hotel on the LakeKarma

When we walked in a girl greeted us enthusiastically from behind the bar. Yes, we could have tea and coffee but no scones. In fact they couldn’t provide anything with tea and coffee … nothing! No cakes, no biscuits … nothing! Extraordinary, this was not the sort of Karma we had been expecting. Had we done something in a previous life that merited this sort of retribution? To be fair the young lady in question acknowledged our disappointment and promised that our next visit would be different. She was embarrassed and said she would talk to the management and get it sorted out. Can’t ask for more than that! The coffee was good though not a top coffee! We will return to check if she has been successful. Watch this space!

View across the Lake of Menteith
View from the hotel across the Lake of Menteith to Inchmahome island
Nationalists

From the hotel you look across the Lake to the little island of Inchmahome on which stands the ruins of Inchmahome Priory. Poster at the Karma Hotel on the LakeMary Queen of Scots once took refuge from the English there and the founder of the SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party), Robert Cunninghame Graham is buried there. Coincidentally, Nicola Sturgeon, the current leader of the SNP announced her resignation today. She’s led the Scottish Government for over eight years and has become one of the most adept and respected politicians in Europe. We understand her reasons for resigning. The blocking of the Scottish people’s ability to determine their own future is tiresome to say the least. And no one can withstand the level of vitriol and hate she has been subjected at the hands of mendacious British nationalists forever. She remains a very popular politician … we wish her well!View across the Lake of Menteith

Also today there was another example of Westminster duplicity. The Koh-i-Noor diamond is to be removed from the crown being used for the coronation of Camilla, the Queen Somesort, in May. It would cause a rumpus because Britain stole it from India about 175 years ago and now India wants it back. Obviously, India should have it back but we would advise them not to hold their breath. Why?

While Camilla is being crowned she will be sitting next to her hubby whose Royal bahookie will be sitting on  a great big lump of stolen goods. The Stone of Destiny was stolen from Scotland in 1296.

Rogues

Scotland struggled for many years to get it repatriated. Indeed we did get it back from Westminster (it now resides in Edinburgh Castle) but in typical Westminster fashion it was returned grudgingly with strings attached. They can legally demand it back. What sort of parcel of rogues does that? We do know, however, that their leader’s posterior will be resting on it in May? Some say that the one being transported back to a London is a fake and the real one remains in Scotland somewhere. Oooo, if that’s true will it mean Charles III’s coronation is null and void? Exciting!

A really enjoyable day out but we stuck to the main roads on our way home.

FK8 3RA          tel: 07871 179950          Karma Group

///lamp.cries.winds

Ordinary, Scones

Scottish Storytelling Centre

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The few readers who actually pay any attention to these blog posts will be very aware that the person we would most like to invite to one of our dinner parties would be the ‘Master of Life’, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham. Indeed, four of our previous posts have come about as a direct result of Graham’s stories: Stuarts of Buckhaven, Liz MacGregor’s Coffee Shop, Brodies of Moffat and The Gallery Café.

Friedrich Engels, Oscar Wilde and Buffalo Bill were among his many friends. One of the finest authors in the English language, Joseph Conrad (who could never be described as having led a dull life) commented on Graham “when I think of you I feel as tho’ I have lived all my life in a dark hole“. Graham died in 1936 but in Argentina he is still regarded as a national hero, affectionately known as Don Roberto. In Scotland, being directly related to King Robert II, he had the best claim to become King of Scotland. Perhaps it is appropriate that we end up here, in the Scottish Storytelling Centre, to hear stories about him.

Important scones

The Cunninghame Graham Society, which is dedicated to promoting his memory, had organised a talk about the great man. Okay, okay, we hear you cry, “but did he like scones?” In all the literature written about Graham we have not come across any reference to scones. However he was a man of exceptionally high intellect and good taste so he would undoubtedly have placed great importance on them.

We had never heard of the Storytelling Centre but when they said it was part of John Knox’s house  on the Royal Mile (the white building centre stage in the title photo) we knew exactly where it was. And what a fantastic place it is. A modern complex of exhibition and performance areas dedicated to the art of storytelling and … a café!

What better way to spend our time waiting for the talk to begin than having a scone. A scone at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, EdinburghObviously, trying to get a completely fresh scone at seven in the evening is a bit of a tall order however the one we were sharing was not at all bad. Plenty of  fruit and quite light in texture. It came with a pot of jam and, the bane of our lives, a pack of Rhodda’s Cornish clotted cream. Perfectly good cream but all the way from Cornwall to this bastion of Scottishness?? Anyway, although it was nowhere near a topscone, we thoroughly enjoyed what we had and would certainly return.

Argentine tango

Although he was in the House of Commons for six years, Cunninghame Graham hated all politicians. He was often asked to withdraw from the House due to his unparliamentary behaviour.Interior view of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh Goodness knows what he would make of today’s unprincipled and spineless inhabitants of the Palace of Westminster. He would be  enraged that the poverty he fought against so vigorously at Westminster in the 1890s still exists. The necessity of food banks, even for those in work. He would have been heartened, however, that progress has been made towards an independent Scotland. However mystified by the time it is taking. His own stories, whether they be about a couple dancing an Argentine tango in Beunos Aires or a dismal funeral in Scotland, remain as vivid as this large picture hanging in the Centre … ‘A Mile Of Stories’ by Julie Lacome.

A Mile Of Stories by Julie Lacome at the Scottish Storytelling Centre,
Part of an effort to revive the Old Town as a living community. “Heave awa, we’re no deid yet”.

EH1 1SR.     tel: 0131 556 9579       Scottish Storytelling Centre

Ordinary, Scones

The Gallery Café

Gosh, it’s been a while. We have both been so caught up with other things that scones have had to take a back seat. Disgraceful, we know. Yesterday, however, we managed to tear ourselves away from building works to attend a St Andrews Day book launch at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum. And it just so happened that, in the Gallery Café, they had scones. Back in harness.

An Eagle In A Henhouse

The launch was for a new book by Lachlan Munro on the political speeches of Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham. Regular readers will know that we have a bit of a soft spot for Graham. HCover of the An Eagle In A Henhouse book by Lachlan Munroe is a national hero in Argentina, where he was a gaucho for many years, yet remains a relatively obscure character at home in Scotland and the UK. He was a landowning aristocrat who lived only a short distance from Stirling and during his flamboyant and adventurous life became friends with George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Keir Hardy and the likes.

On the side of oppressed people wherever they were, be they crofters, miners, women or even Sioux Indians. He hated politicians but became one and managed to get himself thrown out of Westminster on three occasions for disrespecting the House. A mighty achievement in itself. He even spent time in jail for taking part in a Trafalgar Square march in support of Irish home rule. His ability to ruffled feathers gave rise to the book’s name “An Eagle In A Hen-House”.

Chaos

He was a founder of both the Scottish Labour and Scottish National Parties. The launch, however, had politicians of all colours reading extracts from the book. There must have been a couple of hundred people at the launch so when formal proceedings came to a close they all descended on the Gallery Café at the same time … chaos! A scone at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and MuseumEventually we managed to get a scone. The first we had had in ages. It was nowhere near a topscone but given the time since our last one, we thoroughly enjoyed it. No cream but plenty jam and butter. And the coffee was excellent.

Disembodied heads

The Stirling Smith was founded in 1874 from money given by local artist Thomas Stuart Smith. It has continued as a public-private partnership to this day for the benefit of the citizens of Stirling, Dunblane and Kinbuck … long may it continue! Floor sign for the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and MuseumAs we were leaving to go home we were alarmed to come across what we initially thought was the disembodied head of our prime minister. Turned out to be nothing more than a left-over from halloween  … phew!Pumpkin outside the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and MuseumFK8 2RQ       tel: 01786 471917    The Gallery Cafe FB