Tag Archives: William Wallace

Legends Coffee House

17 July 2017 billpaterson1@me.com

Our island hopping adventures have sadly come to an end and we are now back in the real world. At Legends Coffee House in Stirling to be precise. The legend referred to in the name is, of course, William Wallace, Scottish hero, general all round good guy and star of the movie Braveheart. This facility serves visitors to the Wallace Monument … it is where you start and finish your visit.

Tartan stuff

You should drop in … especially if you have just completed the climb to the top of the monument. We had friends from Arizona with us. We forced them up the Abbey Craig, the hill on which the monument stands. Then the 246 steps to the top of the monument, all with the bribe of a scone. We were having to pay up. Most of this place is new since we were last here and thankfully takes up the site previously occupied by a diabolical statue of Wallace. The shop is full of the usual stuff that we suspect tourists must get really fed up with after they have been round some of Scotland’s main attractions. It always seems much the same tartan or saltire emblazoned memorabilia everywhere you go.

That said, Legends Coffee House, in spite of being quite busy, was clean, tidy and appeared well run. But, dear oh dear, our scones felt really heavy! So heavy, in fact, we thought we might have to brandish Wallace’s mighty double handed claymore to cut them in half … hopes of impressing our American friends with a good Scottish scone were fading fast. As it turned out, however, they tasted quite good and our friends were fascinated by the butter, jam and cream rituals which we don’t even think about. And at least it was all Scottish produce. All in all, it evolved into quite a good experience for everyone … but not good enough for a topscone unfortunately.

Just a blur

This monument to William Wallace is here because of his famous victory over the much larger English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297 which helped establish Scotland as a free and independent nation. Goodness knows what he would have thought of the ‘parcel of rogues’ that, almost 400 years after his death, forced Scotland into a union with England. Even worse, that Scotland is still in it. He was hung, drawn and quartered in London. His head and body parts distributed throughout the land as a warning to any other uppity Scots. So no grave to spin in. If he had one, he would would just be a blur.

His statue looks down from its stance high on the monument at Scotland’s present day subordination and it must be thinking “what a right feckless bunch I gave my life for”! Our friends are back on the other side of the pond now, having survived Scotland … and the scones.

Evening view of the Wallace Monument, Stirling — The Wallace Monument stands on the Abbey Craig in the evening light.

FK9 5LF tel: 01786 472140 Legends

BREAKING NEWS. Our Middle East correspondent has just filed a report on a post box he came across in Jaffa, Tel Aviv. Readers may know Jaffa from the biblical stories about Jonah, Solomon and St Peter but more probably through cakes. The post box in question was manufactured by McDowall Steven & Co who, in 1912 took over the Laurieston Ironworks in Falkirk and made post boxes until 1958 when it closed. Jaffa was occupied in 1947 so presumably these post boxes date from then. There’s nothing quite like scones to broaden the mind.

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

The Ground House

16 March 2017 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Although the City of Stirling is only about 11 miles away from our home we hardly ever go there. Edinburgh yes, Glasgow yes, Stirling no. Occasionally we might dip into one of the out-of-town retail parks but never into the city centre itself. Mostly we just drive past it on our way to somewhere else. It was recognising this sorry state of affairs that led us to purposely go from one of these retail parks into the centre, just to check it out.

On the face of it, of course, Stirling has a lot to offer – a castle, a big pointy monument on a hill that can be seen from miles around and lots of other historic attractions full of guides dressed in period costume just in case you happen to be totally devoid of imagination. When you get to the centre however it is pretty obvious that Stirling, like most other towns, has not escaped the effects of all these retail parks on the outskirts. It looks a wee bit sorry for itself. Finding a tearoom was surprisingly difficult. We ended up having to ask but were soon directed towards this place The Ground House Coffee Company on King Street.

It has a pretty relaxed vibe with lots of students sitting tapping away on laptops and checking their phones but .. hey, so were we! The system is that you are given a menu, you take a seat and decide what you want then you go to the counter and tell them what you want, then you go back to your seat and wait for them to bring it to you. Is this self service or not?

Jam dilemmas

We bucked the system and ordered before we sat down because they had a selection of plain, cherry, fruit and apple and cinnamon scones right there in front of us at the counter. No point in wasting time looking at menus. Pat opted for fruit and I thought I would try the apple and cinnamon for a bit of a change. They didn’t have cream (not even scooshie) and they didn’t tell us the scones were going to be toasted but when they arrived they had almost been char grilled. We are never sure if this is scone abuse or not? In a way it seems a bit unnecessary but in another way it can sometimes work out quite well. Maybe you should just be given the choice.

Turned out that The Ground House was a place of dilemmas. The ordering system; the toasted scones; the lack of cream; the question – do you have jam with an apple and cinnamon scone or do you treat it more like a savoury cheese scone?

Scones at the Ground House, Stirling — Toasted apple and cinammon to the left and fruit to the right … is this scone abuse?

If you know the answer to this last point please get in touch. I decided to try and answer it myself by having one half without jam and the other half with. The result was that I enjoyed both! If I had to stake my life on it I would probably plump for jam. However, it’s a very close run thing? We are constantly wrestling with such problems … stressful! At the end of the day we enjoyed the scones and the coffee was excellent. We would recommend The Ground House Coffee Company to anyone – their pizzas look great by the way!

Wee Wallace and Big Wallace

Just across the road from this café, on top of the entrance to the Atheneum building, there is a statue of William Wallace … known as the Wee Wallace, presumably to differentiate it from the somewhat larger one on top of the hill about a mile away. You can make out the Wee Wallace left of centre in our title photograph above. We wonder what he would have made of Theresa May’s announcement today that Scotland cannot have a second referendum. Because it would not be fair for the people to have to vote before they know the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.

These weasel words try to ignore the fact that Scotland voted to stay in the EU … end of! Hence the need for another referendum before the UK leaves. Or is she saying that the UK might not be leaving after all?? We don’t think so … Wee Wallace doesn’t think so either and the Big Wallace certainly doesn’t think so!

FK8 1AY tel: 01786 357606 The Ground House FB

Scones, Uncategorized

Chequers Creperie

25 November 2016 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

For the purists among you, we apologise in advance. This could be a trifle disconcerting … but bear with us if you can! As we have said in the past we don’t go out looking for scones, we just go out and the scones find us. Today is an exception however because today’s scone is not a scone at all … it’s a crêpe. No, no, no, keep reading! We are simply reporting on this establishment because it has been set up by fellow photographer, Paul Borg Grech and, what with us photographers being an enterprising lot, we tend to help each other along wherever we can. The purists, who cannot bear to go any further, may look away now.

Downstairs at Chequers crêperie, Falkirk — Paul, holding fort downstairs

Event central

Anyway, Paul is a born entrepreneur and has decided to add to his flourishing photography business with Falkirk’s first crêperie … Chequers. From the street it looks quite small. We hadn’t realised however that there’s a suite of upstairs rooms where they hold weekly yoga classes, art exhibitions, birthday parties, wine tasting events (sponsored by yet another new Falkirk business Canton Colli Euganei) and anything else you care to mention.

Internal view at Chequers crêperie, Falkirk — Upstairs

The one thing they don’t do is scones! However, living on the edge as ever, we thought it was about time for a crêpe (don’t say that with a posh accent). We were plonked down on one of the comfy settees where we had to select from an extensive variety of sweet and savoury offerings. There’s plenty of other stuff as well. A bacon roll is no problem.

Comfort zone

Now, unlike scones, we would never profess to be experts on this sort of thing. We have no database for comparisons. All we can say is that this jammy crêpe was absolutely delicious. It was accompanied with ice cream, and cream … scooshie, but maybe that’s the done thing with this sort of fare. Who knows? We were definitely out of our comfort zone but thoroughly enjoying ourselves?
Coffee was very good too – served in intriquing elegant glass tumblers that keep the contents hot for ages … brilliant idea.

What’s in a chromosome?

Chequers is on Graham’s Road, next door to the Graeme Hotel, just down from Grahamston station and not far from Graeme High School. A

artwork on display at Chequers crêperie, Falkirk — ‘Dancer’ by local artist Karen van de Graf

variety of spellings but the culprit for this situation is none other than Sir John de Graham, William Wallace’s best friend who fell at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. Wallace, himself carried his body to where it lies buried at the Old Parish Church. In turn, de Graham’s best buddy, Sir John Stewart of Bonkyll, who also died in the battle, is buried in an adjacent grave. Although not as famous as de Graham we mention him because, in a 2014 study, he was identified as the ancester of all men with the Y chromosome SNP mutation S781. Our understanding of genetics is even less than that of crêpes. Does this mean, however, that all supporters of independence are related … Bonkyll Boys? Whatever … we wish Paul and his merry band at Chequers Creperie all the best with their new venture.

View from Chequers crêperie, Falkirk — View from Chequers – scene of the English encampment for the Battle of Falkirk in 1298

FK1 1HR tel: 01324 227654 Chequers Creperie FB

Scones, history and a dollop of politics