Tag Archives: Buckhaven

Coffee on Wooer

Goodness knows, we really try to point out the positives whenever we can. It has been very difficult recently however. Like our last post about the Brenachoile at Trossachs Pier, some places just leave you no choice but to report it as it is. This is another. We were strolling idly through Falkirk, as we do, and when we came on this place we were intrigued. Situated on Wooer Street (a derivation of ‘weaver street’) it wasn’t too hard to see how they came up with the name. street sign for Wooer Street, Falkirk

These premises have undergone many incarnations over the years and this was obviously the latest. When we went in we stood and waited because we weren’t sure what to do. There were about four young lads doing headless chicken impersonations but none of them paid us any attention.

How not to sell a scone

Eventually we managed to capture one and asked if it was table service or self service. No answer to the question, just “what do you want”. The answer was “two coffees” at which point our attendant fled. We didn’t know if they did scones or not. Pat sat at a table and I went over to the counter where, voila, there were some scones. I jokingly asked the young chap if he had baked them that morning? He lifted one, felt it, grimaced, then unsuccessfully tried to penetrate  it with a fork. At this point he said “I wouldn’t if I was you”! So we didn’t. This is the first post we have ever put up without a picture of a scone, apart from the famous Buckhaven scone. We felt duty bound to report anyway. A piece of carrot cake was substituted and it was rather nice; the coffee was good as well, if a little bitter near the end. It’s a tremendous shame because these lads were all trying very hard but obviously lacked training and direction. A bit like a rudderless ship.

section of COW menu
section of the menu but no indication of when ‘close’ was??

There were so many mixed messages amongst the jumble of stuff which only served to make the place look untidy and confused. The menus chalked up behind the counter were all over the place! We guess the overall look was supposed to be ‘shabby chic’, but it wasn’t working … just ‘shabby’.Interior of Coffee on WooerWhere was the captain of this ship? What was he/she thinking about?

Where are they now?

Much the same could be said of the politicians who took us out of the EU. Where are they now and what were they thinking about? Still, nothing to worry about as Team GB comes in second only in the medals table to the USA … 67 in all. We are now officially a ‘sporting superpower’, whatever that means?

Not all countries have money to burn like the UK so at a cost to the taxpayer of over £4m per medal that could easily be seen as cheating. Nothing against the individual athletes, they are just ‘doing what they want to do’, good luck to them. Now, however, as well as paying for their medals, we are doubtless going to shower them with honours too. For just ‘doing what they want to do’! Promise that’s the last rant about the Olympics. According to the Coffee on Wooer’s rather glitzy but equally confusing website, they are setting out to challenge the big high street coffee shops. Maybe so, but they still have a huge amount to learn from them! Falkirk needs businesses like this so let’s hope they get it right eventually.

FK1 1NJ      tel: 01324 278026      Coffee on Wooer

Stuart’s of Buckhaven Café

Buckhaven, on the East Neuk of Fife, is a town that has had a hard life .. and it shows. It was involved with the weaving industry but then, in the 19th century, became Scotland’s second biggest fishing port. It had about 200 boats operating from the harbour. The demise of the fishing industry was hastened by the advent of coal mining but now that too has gone. Because of this, the town looks a bit dilapidated. We were here because we were trying to find a Polynesian princess … ‘eh?’, I hear you say.

Sinakalula

We had been reading a short story by R. B. Cunninghame Graham called ‘The Princess’. A story written c1920 and based around a granite slab set into a church wall overlooking the harbour in Buckhaven. On it was carved “Here lies Sinakalula, Princess of Raratonga, the beloved wife of Andrew Brodie, Mariner.”

Graham’s story continues; “What were the circumstances of their meeting the stone did not declare, only that the deceased had been a princess in her native land, and had died in this obscure east-country haven, and had been “beloved.” Nothing — but all — at least all that life has to give”.

Graham said that the slab was badly weathered. We thought it would be good to find the church and photograph the slab for posterity. There was no sign of it on any internet searches. Oh, if only we had known! We scoured Buckhaven in the rain and could not even find the harbour. How can you not find a harbour in a wee town like this? Buckhaven 01

In need of sustenance we dropped into what appeared to be the only café in town, Stuart’s of Buckhaven. Guess what, no scones .. talk about a bad day! In a previous post we reported on scones becoming extinct in Galashiels and here within a few days is another town with no scones. What’s happening?

Apple pie

We know that you would worry about us in such dire circumstance, so to ease your troubled minds we are showing you a picture of my apple tart, which was very good, as was Pat’s meringue.

a Buckhaven scone
a Buckhaven scone

However, they were definitely not scones. Stuart’s of Buckhaven has been around since 1857 and must have witnessed a lot of changes. It’s a baker and butcher combined and all the produce looked excellent but the café area was pretty soulless. Could do better, and could certainly do some scones .. you’re a bakery for goodness sake!

Entire town demolished

We asked a passerby if they could point us in the direction of the harbour .. “there’s nae harbour here son” . However, they did tell us where it used to be. How can a town just lose a harbour? What we found was just a large patch of grass with a vestige of harbour wall running down one side. Turns out, it had been filled in in the 1960s. Worst of all, the entire old town had been demolished and used as infill .. church and all. Perhaps, as we gazed around at the council houses, we were standing on top of our princess’s granite headstone .. lost forever!

the harbour as Sinakalula would have known it
the harbour as Sinakalula would have known it
Elysian fields

This was a miserable wet day in Buckhaven and it made you wonder what a young polynesian woman would have made of it. The story goes: “dressed in a coloured and diaphanous sacque, a wreath of red hibiscus round her head, her jet black hair loose on her shoulders, bare arms and feet, and redolent of oil of cocoa-nut, she must have seemed a being from another world to the rough mariner.” in 1857, was she disappointed by the lack of scones in Stuart’s of Buckhaven?

The story speculates that ” the mariner brought home his island bride, perhaps to droop in the cold north, and he laid her in the drear churchyard to wait the time when they should be united again in some Elysian field, not unlike Polynesia, with the Tree of Life for palms, the self same opal-tinted sea, angels for tropic birds, and the same air of calm pervading all the air”. Let’s hope they are together again, just like that!

KY15 4BY    tel: 01592 260831      Stuart’s of Buckhaven FB