Royal Bank of Scotland Archives - Scones, history and a dollop of politics

We’ve been trying to book an afternoon tea here in Lamlash House since what seems like forever. It’s always fully booked because they only do them once in a while. For example, the next one isn’t until 7th September. Anyway, we managed to get booked so here we are in the lace manufacturing town of Newmilns in deepest Ayrshire.

Although lace manufacturing has largely died out in the town MYB Textiles still carries on the tradition. Now, they are the world’s only producer still making patterned lace on their 100 year old looms.

Banking To Banqueting

The Tannahill window at Lamlash House — One of several windows dedicated to Scotlands writers and poets. This one is to Robert Tannahill.

Lamlash House was built in 1889 for the Royal Bank of Scotland. It’s opulent Victorian interiors were obviously designed to impress but they are only evident today due to the monumental renovation undertaken by its current owners, Gordon and Jonathan. To begin with they only had the upstairs but in 2014 when the bank decided to quit they acquired the downstairs as well. Years of intense restoration followed before they were able to open the doors again in 2019. And what a job they have done! The attention to detail is astonishing. It is like stepping back in time but with an air of playfulness replacing the rather stern solidity of the bank. Their years of toil have really paid off.

Today they were celebrating a five year anniversary so everyone was presented with complimentary fizz on arrival. Our tea was served in what used to be the main banking hall; now styled around Charles Rennie Macintosh. From the Leaf Tea and Infusion Menu we chose the Lamlash House Signature Blend which was billed as the perfect accompaniment to scones … just what we needed!

The afternoon tea was a cornucopia of goodies from delicious sandwiches to citrusy posset with a raspberry on top. And fabulous scones, of course. All this combined with perfect service in beautiful surroundings made it a wonderful experience. Although not quite Pat’s birthday she was suitably serenaded and presented with a cake complete with candle. This was an experience which could easily rival Fonab Castle and Schloss Roxburgh as our sconey benchmarks.

Small but perfect

Afterwards we went out to the garden to finish off our bubbles in the sunshine. And after that we went to what they think may be the smallest bar in Scotland – the Strongroom Bar. Obviously it used to be the walk-in safe for the bank and it features one which used to sit in the main banking hall where we had our afternoon tea. It’s great fun and, as expected, beautifully reimagined as a bar. However, it can only accommodate a couple of people so our cocktails were served next door in the Library. It’s not a lot bigger but is beautifully appointed and does have a couple of very comfortable easy chairs.

The Library at Lamlash House — Pat had a French Martini and mine was a Cosmo-Not. Served, of course, on £50 notes (napkins)

Lamlash house has a real family feel about it. No one seems to be in a rush. It was Jonathan’s mother that answered the door and it was her and her friends who were working in the kitchen. Long after afternoon tea was finished they still took delight in showing us around the premises and explaining the significance of some of the features and the difficulties experienced during renovations. Of course, they can only do this because they carefully manage the number of small weddings and other events they hold to keep stress levels to an absolute minimum … perfect!

Pat with Gordon and Jonathan — Gordon, Pat and Jonathan beside a vintage bicycle in the garden

Lock in

We have seldom enjoyed a visit as much as we did this one. It was an absolute pleasure. It seems a shame to sully it with political comment so we won’t.

Stained glass at Lamlash House — Flora, Roman Goddess of Flowers and the Season of Spring at the front door

Except to say that we missed the TV Leaders Debate between Sunak and Starmer which we referred to in our previous post from Stockbridge House. Of course, the media have been talking about nothing else so we almost feel as if we did actually see it. There was no mention of anything of importance like the National Debt, Brexit or Scotland. Instead they just lied to each other and to us. With leadership like this we wish we could just lock ourselves in Lamlash House until it is all over … or even longer!

KA16 9AD tel: 07912 874 600 Lamlash House

///racked.smashes.etchings

This post from the Dome in Edinburgh may be shocking for many readers! We apologise in advance if that is the case. Everyone knows what afternoon tea is … goodness, we’ve reviewed quite a few on this blog.

Internal view of the Dome — It used to be the Royal Bank of Scotland, famous for its glass dome

In 1840 the 7th Duchess of Bedford got into the habit of having tea, sandwiches and cake in the afternoon to tide her over to the evening meal which wasn’t served until 8pm. She started to invite friends who would change into long gowns and hats to take tea in the drawing room at Woburn Abbey. It became a social occasion for polite discourse and tea sipped from fine china with one’s little finger delicately raised! Henry James said “There are few hours more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea“. All well and good, however, this post is not about ‘afternoon tea’, it’s about ‘morning tea’ here at the Dome in Edinburgh. “Sacré bleu, what sort of abomination is that?” we hear you cry!

How it all began

Back in 2016 we had afternoon tea upstairs in the Georgian Tea Room … and very nice it was! Recently, however, we became aware that, against all the laws of nature, they were now offering morning tea. Has to be the work of the Devil. We felt that it would have to be checked out on our reader’s behalf so in the spirit of Marco Polo and Ernest Shackleton we set out to investigate. Turns out that morning tea is served downstairs in the Club Room.

Caledonian Heritable Limited own the Dome along with more than 300 other pubs and restaurants. By a happy coincidence they also own the Woodside, our local and our weekly haunt at 5pm every Friday. If you think the Dome is a bit fancy you should see the Woodside! No morning tea or even afternoon tea but it does have a range of potato crisps.

So here we are in the Club Room drinking champagne and it’s not even midday! Told you it was the Devil’s work. Surely you don’t get lots cakes with a morning tea? No, what you get is two mini breakfast rolls with link sausage and bacon. There’s also lemon and blueberry muffins and an oatmeal thingy with berries. Oh, and scones … obviously! We hadn’t had any breakfast so it was all very welcome. The mini breakfast rolls were nicely toasted and the sausage and the bacon cooked to perfection. I asked for some tomato sauce so they brought brown … heyho! The service was typically efficient if a little cavalier about sauce. The oats and berries thingy was also nice though maybe a little on the heavy side.

The scones were unusually uniform in shape but with a lovely sprinkling of crystallised sugar on top. Crisp on the outside and soft in the middle, it couldn’t be anything else but a topscone.

The Club Room at the Dome — Part of the Club Room

Verdict

As if things weren’t confusing enough they serve morning tea until 2pm … so it’s perfectly possible to have morning tea in the afternoon … but not, we hasten to add, the other way round. So what’s with this morning tea thing? Is it really such an abomination? Well, we should probably apologise to the Dome for casting aspersions. It was all rather nice and we would recommend it to those of an adventurous disposition who are willing to get out of bed a little earlier.

George Street, Edinburgh — George Street from the Dome

Apart from morning tea what other miracles are there today? Wimbledon has started heralding the start of that miracle of television abuse by respectable old ladies. My mother had never held a racket in her life, however, during Wimbledon she was transmogrified into a tennis expert who would scream abuse at the tv when her favourite players missed a ‘simple’ shot. King Charles is in Scotland today continuing that age old tradition of plundering Scotland’s Crown Jewells. The miracle is that he is able to do it in broad daylight aided and abetted by the police. Today is also the 75th anniversary of the NHS. Given successive government’s attempts to privatise it, it’s a miracle that it’s still around, albeit in need of some TLC.

This was a lovely day out in Old Reekie and our morning breakfast at the Dome will probably last us the rest of the day … another miracle?

EH2 2PF tel: 0131 624 8624 The Dome

///incomes.noble.dream

Scones, history and a dollop of politics

Tag Archives: Royal Bank of Scotland

Lamlash House

Banking To Banqueting

Small but perfect

Lock in

The Dome

How it all began

Verdict

by Bill and Pat Paterson and is about finding good scones throughout the world, with a little bit of politics