It’s a beautiful day! Perfect for a mini road trip, and who knows, maybe even a scone along the way. What could be simpler? Well, just about anything, as it turned out. Arriving here at the Golden Larches wasn’t straightforward.

Our target destination was St Fillans, a picturesque little village at the eastern end of Loch Earn. We hadn’t been there for many years, but our memories were of rather upmarket establishments spread out along the water’s edge — good scone hunting country. 

Unfortunately, when we arrived, our memories seemed to have been playing tricks. Probably accurate at the time, but in the intervening years, things had sadly gone downhill.  The setting by the loch was still beautiful, but the upmarket establishments had gone, decidedly downmarket; it was difficult to tell if some of them were even open. We settled for some lunch sitting outside the Village Store and Coffee Shop. It’s funny when you ask if they have scones, they invariably reply “No, but we have ….” oblivious to the fact they are dealing with professional sconeys, only interested in SCONES!

Lunch was good, so with our pangs of hunger sated, we decided to carry on along the lochside to Lochearnhead and try for a scone there. Wishful thinking, the Clachan Hotel was a scone-free zone as well. Mama Mia!

We do feel that we are providing value to our readers in the sense that you no longer have to waste your time seeking scones in these establishments.  All part of the service!

Wrong loch!

Our next move was to search out the Ardeonaig Hotel, which, from memory, was on the south side of Loch Earn. Now, this is a very scenic single-track road, but it wasn’t long before we realised our memories were playing tricks again. Ardeonaig Hotel is on the south side of Loch Tay, not Loch Earn. We had the wrong loch! No matter, we could just continue and the road would take us out again at St Fillans. Except, when we got to Ardvorlich House (almost back in St Fillans), there was a low-loader blocking the road as it attempted to remove a digger. … argh! It was obvious this digger situation wasn’t going to resolve itself any time soon, so we had no choice but to turn round and retrace the six miles to Lochearnhead.  

Back on the main road, the first place we came to was the Golden Larches. And when we asked if they had scones, the reply was an emphatic “You bet we do“! At last! We’ve driven past this place hundreds of times and never stopped, but this was the day when we did. It used to be a Post Office and is directly across the road from what used to be the local railway station.

Toilets

If truth be known, the main reason for stopping this time was to use their toilet facilities. And guess what? Their toilet facilities are world famous – THE WORLD FAMOUS SHARK TOILET to be precise.

Don’t ask, we don’t understand either.

“Quirky’ might be the best way to describe this place, but the service was warm and enthusiastic, so, after previous disappointments, we had high hopes for our scone. There were plenty of seats inside, but everyone was outside in the sunshine, so we joined them. With the road being only a few feet away, it could get a bit noisy, but apart from that, it was lovely.  The scone had been warmed to the point of being ‘hot’ and came with jam and a little pot of clotted cream.  There was loads of fruit, but it was so soft and crumbly that it was quite tricky to eat. It kept falling apart before you could get it in your mouth. We persevered, however, and ended up rather enjoying it. No topscone though.

As well as the World Famous Shark Toilet, this place also had a shrine which the owners had built in the little glade behind the café.

The day hadn’t turned out the way we had expected, but if it hadn’t been for totally random happenings, we wouldn’t have ended up here. We enjoy unplanned days like this. As we sat at our table overlooking the shrine, it made us wonder if God, who supposedly created Israel, has any regrets.

FK19 8NX           tel; 01567 830481         Golden larches

///raft.rationed.ducks