The Tufted Duck Hotel St Combs

As you drive into the small viallage of St Combs about 10 minutes from Fraserburgh (turn right at Tesco), one sees this ugly flat square building in the distance and sure enough thats the hotel. Gets zero out of ten for looks for sure. It is set in a huge car park one side and a huge sweep of gravel the other. I spoke to the owner about the bleak exterior and was assured that plans were in the works for a major landscaping, including a place for wedding guests, but that the local planning authority instead of encouraging a local employer, was making it very difficult for them. When one invests a lot into something as obviously they have, it must be very upsetting not to be able to complete ones projects. From what I was told the plans include a health spa.

Having said all that its one of the friendliest and nicest hotels inside I have ever stayed in, and the staff and quality of the fittings and food make up for the bleak exterior. The rooms are large and the bathrooms spotless. The restaurant serves good solid fare, breakfast is a feast with black pudding, haggis, bacon, sausages, eggs, beans, tomato and fried bread...whew hard to get through and I am a trencherman. They also offer kippers, smoked haddock, porridge, lots of toast and the usual cereals and a bowl of fresh fruit.I am told they will even cook special requests with no problem such as chuckie eggs and fingers for little ones.

Dinner is a bit upmarket and quite expensive, fish and chips at 12 pounds but excellent fish and lovely chips so cannot complain. They do good steaks and a couple of specials each night although we felt they were not perfect, for example I had roast pork loin and it was obviously cooked and chilled sliced an reheated. But overall very good quality again, but expect to pay 60 to 80 pounds for 4 with a bottle of wine.

Aberdeenshire - The North Coast

Our family took a weeks holiday in North Aberdeenshire, staying at a small hotel in Fraserburgh called the Tufted Duck (see seperate review). We drove along both coasts, the one South to Aberdeen itself and the one West to Lossiemout and Elgin. Their is a nice well marked coastal road.

To the West it passes through Macduff ( abit downtrodden) and Banf (very nice, upmarket and pretty) then Portsoy (nice local pottery), Buckie and some small coves but all with no beaches to speak of until one come to Lossiemouth which is stunning. Lossiemouth has a large airbase but the town is lovely and very nice quality buildings and a super beach long and curving with soft sand.
Elgin was a great disappointment reminding us of Galashiels, not many shops and not very nice. We also visited the Dolphin Centre at Spay Head.

To the South there is not much happening except at Crudden Bay where there is a nice sandy beach accessed over a little bridge.

Getting Planted Out

The weather her has been very good for a number of days, temperatures around 12-15 degrees C. So we have started our planting out with so far 200 onions, radish, lettuce, carrots and broad beans. Its a pleasure to be in the graden on days like this.

Thefts in the Borders

Since we came here we have felt very safe. We hardly lock our doors at night or our garden gate. But today I stopped to get eggs near Melrose at a small farm we frequent on the St Boswells to Selkirk road. The owner was there and he said he was packing up selling eggs, which he does like all small farmers in the Borders based on a honesty box. He told me that last week he lost over 100 pounds and the same the week before, people just coming and taking all his eggs and leaving no money, or worse raiding his box of petty cash. He told me that some Chinese fellas came and robbed him of half his chickens and that just this weekend he stopped a gang of Polish guys from Newcastle trying to steel his feeder troughs for scrap metal. They were caught by police at Carter Bar on the way home. I was totally shocked. I had heard of diesel fuel being stolen from farms who often have the tanks with a simple tap, but the scale of what he told me was shocking and is mostly down he claims to Eastern EWuropean immigrants from the Newscastle area. He said if he leaves his tractor out all night the next morning no diesel.

Its all in the Flour

I bake my own bread but I have never got close to the taste and quality of Fords of Berwick who I rate as the premier breadmaker in The Scottish Borders and North of England. However last time we visited Fords (the Norham branch) I bought a range of flour from them. The bread I have made with this flour is as good as their own bread, both white and brown.  Now I have used a wide range of flours before, from Allinsons strong bread to speciality mills, but nothing has the taste of this flour. I have come to the conclusion that as with baguette its all in the flour.  Fords sell a wide range of their own flours, another reason to visit them in Berwick upon Tweed or Norham

The Shore restaurant Leith

They saw my blog post and they wrote and apologised and have offered my wife and I a free meal next time we are in Edinburgh. Can't say fairer than that!

Netflix doesn't work up here

Seduced by the ads and wanting more choice for movies I tried Netflix. It is a very good experience all round, but the bandwidth provided bt BT for my area just can't cut it. You start a movie and it looks good and after about 4 minutes everything stops for 2-3 minutes while it catches up, then it was ok for another 5 minutes. Made watching a movie a joke. But I must say when I called them and explained they were very nice about it and cancelled my card immediately.