Tag Archives: R B Cunninghame Graham

Brodies of Moffat

Brodies is a restaurant, come wine bar, come gin bar, come coffee house. And, for us, a greatInternal view of Brodies of Moffat discovery. It is situated in lovely Moffat, an old spa town with a huge main street and lots of elegant Victorian buildings. We’re not here to admire the architecture however. Rather we are on a sort of pilgrimage. Much like the one we did some time ago trying to track down a Polynesian Princess in Buckhaven. Again, the catalyst was one of our favourite authors, R B Cunninghame Graham.

This time it was his short story “Beattock for Moffat”. In it he tells the tale, set around 1920, of Andra, and his attempt to get back from London to his farm in Moffat, to die. His brother, Jock, had somewhat reluctantly left tending his turnips to go and collect his brother.  Accompanied by Andra’s cockney wife Jean, the reader is treated to a trip through a moonlit sleeping England on the night train from Euston.

Conversation between the three characters is sparse. Andra is very frail, his sole aim is to reach Moffat while he still has a breath in his body. Jean, in her English way, consoles her husband. “Why yuss, in eight days at Moffat, you’ll be as ‘earty as you ever was. Yuss, you will,  you take my word.” Whereas Jock, in the typically Scottish way, tells Andra “ye ken, we’ve got a brand new hearse outby, sort of Epescopalian lookin’ we gless a’ round, so’s ye can see the kist“. The dying man takes more comfort from Jock’s attempts than his wife’s.

Beattock for Moffat

Eventually they arrive at Beattock, the nearest station to Moffat, where they carry Andra to the platform. When the train doors are banged shut the guard shouts “Beattock, Beatock for Moffat“. Andra smiled and whispered faintly in his brother’s ear “Aye, Beattock – for Moffat?” … and died. Today the trains don’t stop at Beattock but we had heard that there was a campaign underway to have it reopened so we thought we should go and have a look at where Andra spent his last mortal moments. We had not bargained on the fact that the station had long since been demolished and even the locals were unsure where it had once been located. It was a sorry sight when we eventually found it. Tucked away down a narrow lane behind an old blacksmith’s smiddy. Walking around, we did feel closer to Andra and his struggle.

Site of Beattock railway station
Where Beattock station used to be on the left and the platform now completely overgrown.
Last journey

Those of you who have spent time looking for non-existent railway stations will know that it is not long before a cuppa and a scone is required. We traced Andra’s last journey from Beattock over the couple of miles to Moffat and that’s how we ended up here at Brodies. Internal view of Brodies of Moffat

Back to the neeps

It really is a great venue for Moffat. Some of the other eateries in town can look a wee bit tired. This one, however, has a beautifully appointed  restaurant and a very comfortable lounge area. Before long we had the last two fruit scones resplendent in front of us. Complete with nice crockery and generous portions of jam and cream. The butter came in a butter dish, no prepackaged stuff here! Someone must have told them how we like our scones because they were just right. Crunchy on the outside and beautifully soft in the middle … but you all know that by now! We ate them thinking of Andra’s hurl in the new hearse and wondering if Jock went straight back to his turnips.

We are always impressed by Cunninghame Graham’s powers of observation. It was him, after all, who noted. “The enemies of Scottish Independence lie not with the English, a kind and generous people, but with those in Scotland without imagination”. Logo for Brodies of MoffatDG10 9EB     tel: 01683 222870      Brodies

ps The man who enabled Amazon to deliver parcels on time and for the world in general to make appointments and produce reliable timetables, came from Moffat. We visited his grave. Oddly enough the church yard has a beautifully smooth tarmacadam path leading through the headstones but not to the one belonging to its inventor, John MacAdam. You have to tramp through a lot of long wet grass to get to it. He died here in 1836.Gravestone of John McAdam in Moffat church yard

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