Callendar House is a great Georgian chateauesque building in the centre of Falkirk. It’s history goes way back to the 14th century when it was built for the Livingstone family. However, since then it has played host to many historical figures including  Mary, Queen of Scots, Oliver Cromwell, Bonnie Prince Charlie and Queen Victoria. The tearoom we see today is part of the restoration after the house was partially demolished by Cromwell’s forces in the mid 17th century.

Affinity

I have a particular affinity to this place because my dad was head forester on Callendar Estate and as a young lad I regularly had to accompany him to visit the offices which were in the west wing of the house. At that time the house and its policies were very private with few people ever getting to go anywhere near it. The riders and hounds for fox hunts always started off from the front door. It was eventually taken over by Falkirk Council in 1963. Since then it  has been run as a public amenity for the people of the town.

The turbulent times in the past brought about by Cromwell and the Young Pretender are not all that far removed from what we are witnessing in GE2105 with only a few days left before polling. All the Unionists parties seem to be hellbent on neutralising Scotland’s MP’s in Parliament without, apparently, realising the irony of what they are doing. If Scotland is effectively disenfranchised then Scotland, to all intents and purposes, is a foreign country .. end of Union. The Union will not be preserved by ignoring the settled will of one of it’s constituent countries. Hoary old sceptic that I am, even I cannot imagine that they are all as thick as that. England does not ‘need’ Scotland it sure as hell needs Scotland more than Scotland needs England.

No staff

We were here for the Fabrizio Gianni photographic exhibition which was great. Of course we soon ended up gravitating towards the tearoom which is absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, however, it has ‘council’ written all over it .. the epitome of inefficiency. Although it could easily be decked out with tasteful tables and chairs that you can buy for buttons at an auction, instead it has the ‘council’ conference style furniture which  jars grotesquely with the surroundings. There is a fantastic fireplace .. but no hint of a fire? When we arrived there were no staff either although someone eventual appeared from some distant room. It was a very odd atmosphere.

The staff were friendly but had to work very hard fetching everything from afar.  They advertise afternoon tea with freshly baked scones and cream. However our scones were certainly not baked that day, the worst scones we have had in some time. We were also told that they “don’t do cream”. What with the Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies, Falkirk has become a major tourist attraction. C’mon Falkirk Community Council, you can do better than this with such a splendid location!

FK1 1YR            tel: 01324 503770                    Callendar House