Day 41: Beauly

Ruby the Australian Kelpie sheepdog came calling this morning to see if I wanted to play with her. 

She brought her own special stick. Shouldn’t she be off counting sheep or something at 6.30am? She was a working dog who lived outside, but one really cold winter John and Freda let her into the kitchen where she wisely behaved so impeccably she has slept inside ever since. She is still a working dog, helping John with his Texel sheep. 

They are a heritage sheep and John breeds them. You can tell he is a shepherd. Not only does he have a clever dog, but he also has the crook to prove it. 

Ruby knew when I got tired of throwing the stick for her because after a bit (when I was tired of throwing the stick for her) she metaphorically sighed, picked up her stick and padded off. Perhaps she was tired of my poor throwing performance. Mmm...bright animal as I said.

Today is a rare day for me. It is overcast. I have had no wifi and almost nil phone signal for the last few days and I need to catch up so it’s not much hardship to work from this nice little home from home. 

Out of the habit of applying myself to concentrated working all day, I soon lost interest and decided to just get a breath of air and pop into Beauly on the excuse that there are no cooking facilities except for a microwave in the flat.  

This is a little town punching well above its weight.  Local tradition credits Mary Queen of Scots for the name of the village when she reportedly stayed in the Abbey and declared: C’est un beau lieu – what a beautiful place. It is small but obviously thriving.

It has a ruined Abbey to give it a bit of historical interest

The Old School has been turned into a wonderful gift shop and cafe,  full of really lovely things. It is family run and the owner Helen Crawford’s buying motto is: “If I don’t think it’s gorgeous, I don’t let it into the shop. Every item has to have the wow factor". I think she has succeeded!

And I am not the only one. The Old School has just been awarded Scottish Gift Retailer of the Year 2015 -16.

A lot of her stock is designed and made in Scotland and some is from further afield where they meet Helen’s criteria.

How about these brogue paperweights for Fathers Day?

Or a gift made from Stags horn?

There is lots for women and children, stationery and books,  but also man’s best friend – his dog.

There is also a refurbished cafe where I intended to eat something wholesome and virtuous but got seduced by something naughty instead.

Another extraordinary shop is The Highland Tweed Shop, established in 1858 and still run by the Campbell family today. I can’t imagine there are many like it either.

They have racks of different tweeds on the roll...

Cashmere and lambs wool knitwear for men and women. The most richly coloured corduroys for men in colours I am more used to seeing in Europe than in the UK. How marvellous!

They not only sell a wide variety of traditional suits, skirts and hats in tartans and tweeds, but the owner has caved in to ‘The Outlander thing’ with some embarrassment and had some stunning berets made up that she is calling The Outlander.  I don’t blame her. They should fly off the shelf! The German tourists will particularly love them, and as far as I know they haven’t even seen the series yet though the books have been available in Germany as translations for years. 

This is Fraser country, and many of the families are Frasers, so she has also had some tartan woven into the old soft colours as another nod to ‘The Outlander thing too.’ Clever girl. The real Frasers will be delighted, but so too will the I-LOVE-JAMIE fans.

Talking of kilts, the local drama club is revealing all this evening by putting on a musical evening at the Lovat Arms Hotel called ‘Under the Kilt.’

I am going of course -  just as soon as I have chomped my way through the local deli delicacy - a haggis Scotch egg.   

Thankfully it wasn’t in Gaelic – the show that is. Even the Czech hotel receptionist understood it and found it funny. Where else could you possibly get a night out for £6, and be helping a charity at the same time? Was it good? It was Amateur Dramatics at its best – they had as much fun as the audience who anticipated the jokes, held their breathe when the prompt was less than prompt, and winced when the top notes were nowhere near reached. Did I say it was Under the Kilt the musical?

Laughing does the soul good and laughing in good company is even better. I will doubtless sleep like a log.