https://downrightgabbler.co.uk/

Downright Gabbler, High Street, Beauly (2026)

05/09/2026

Our newest event, the North Coast 500 in 5 Objects, has been proving popular recently. The menu is sourced from the four counties of the North Coast 500 route - Inverness, Ross, Caithness and Sutherland - so as you can imagine it features beef, lamb and fish. But, as with all our meals, we offer a vegetarian alternative.

In the case of one traditional Scottish dish - our potted hough, the alternative is usually a beetroot remoulade. And both are accompanied by our wonderful oat bannocks.

Oats have been a staple of the Scottish diet for centuries as they grow well in our cooler, wetter climate.

But Samuel Johnson, in his Dictionary of the English Language couldn't resist the chance to poke fun with his definition of oats as "A grain which in England is generally given to horses but in Scotland supports the people." His great friend, biographer and occasional travelling companion Scotsman James Boswell responded saying: "That's why in England they have finer horses and in Scotland we have finer people".

This week we've a North Coast 500 dinner on Wednesday 9th September, Living the Dram on Friday 11th and our Celebration of Beauly and the Black Isle on Saturday 12th.

All our events combine our own particular take on traditional Scottish food with stories about our history in this part of the world. And you'll find oats feature quite regularly - they're tasty, they're good for you and we continue to eat them despite what Mr Johnson had to say!

NC500 - North Coast 500 Visit Inverness Loch Ness

04/09/2026

On this day in 1759 Benjamin Franklin was made a Burgess and Guild Brother of Edinburgh. He was visiting Scotland for the first time and fell in love with the place and the people. He wrote of his time there: "Had not strong connexions draw[n] me elsewhere, Scotland would be the country that I should choose to spend the remainder of my days in.”

He travelled to various places and made lasting friendships which had an influence on his work in the USA. So here for Four on a Friday are four places Franklin visited:

* Edinburgh was at the heart of the Scottish Enlightenment. Franklin said, if he stood at the Cross in Edinburgh, he could: "in a few minutes take 50 men of genius and learning by the hand."

* He was visiting Scotland to collect an honorary degree from St Andrews University in recognition of his work on electricity. Franklin must have been impressed that Scotland had four Ancient Universities founded in the 1400s and 1500s at a time when England only had two.

* Franklin met with John Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow University, and travelled with him to Perthshire. They kept up their friendship and were both enthusiastic about encouraging "useful learning" which would be of practical value. Franklin's thoughts on this would lead to the creation of the University of Pennsylvania. Anderson would leave money in his will to establish the Andersonian Institute to provide useful and practical education, now Strathclyde University.

* When Franklin visited the newly opened Carron Iron Works, he's said to have left behind an improved design for a stove which he gave them for free.

Visit Edinburgh

03/09/2026

Sourdough September is now well underway, a celebration of the oldest type of leavened bread in the world. Sourdough bread would have been eaten by the workers on the pyramids and was a staple of the Roman diet. It was the Romans who took sourdough with them as they conquered most of Europe.

Not the north of Scotland though. The Picts - the painted people as the Romans knew them - were the only tribe never to be conquered by them, or so it's said. Were the Romans scared of them or, as some argue, did they just decide the northern parts of Scotland were too cold for them and not worth capturing?

The Picts were portrayed by the Romans as savages and barbarians but as we learn more about them, with some fascinating archaeological digs taking place, we realise they were really a very sophisticated people for their time, drinking European wines from French glasses and well organised into large communities of up to 4,000 people.

It's one of the fascinating things about history - it's changing and evolving all the time as people do more digging, literally!

We're not historians here at the Downright Gabbler, we're storytellers. So what we offer is an interesting and entertaining mix of fact and folklore, myth and memories. Our Pictish forebears feature in our Highland Banquet tonight Thursday 3rd September, as well as a North Coast 500 dinner in 5 Objects tomorrow night, with some spaces still left.

But back to sourdough bread... We serve it at the Gabbler when Kirsty's been too busy to make her own bread - or in the case of North Coast 500 our oat bannocks - and we particularly love the bread from The Bakery in Tomnahurich Street, Inverness. It's available there or at Corner on the Square in Beauly.

Corner on the Square Visit Inverness Loch Ness NC500 - North Coast 500

02/09/2026

Thomas Telford died on this day in 1834 having made a huge contribution to Scotland, and the Highlands in particular, with his programme of building works designed to improve the lives of Highlanders who were largely living in poverty.

He's a giant in the civil engineering world - nobody else has ever left a legacy like it - from bridges to canals, harbours to churches, his work touched on every aspect of human existence.

Telford was commissioned at various times by various bodies and also private individuals. Government commissioned many of the roads and canal projects, as well as churches for rural parishes, known as Parliamentary Churches.

The British Fisheries Society commissioned towns and harbours in one of the first examples of public private partnership. In the case of Wick the creation of the new harbour and surroundings was financed by Sir William Pulteney. He would be immortalised in this new area Pulteneytown, now home to a very fine malt wh**ky Old Pulteneytown.

These were just some of the many attempts over the centuries to "improve" the Highlands and it's a topic we explore in our latest dinner, the North Coast 500 in 5 Objects. It looks at life in the very northernmost part of Scotland and we have one running on Friday 4th September.

Telford himself is such a major figure in the Highlands he also gets a mention at our Highland Banquet, on Thursday 3rd September and features in our Super Scots Sunday Lunch on Sunday, but only if one of the guest picks him from our deck of cards! We've also got A Write Good Night - our celebration of Scottish writing superstars - on Saturday 5th.

You can see his work for yourselves as most of it is still standing - a testament to his skills as an engineer. Follow the Telford Trail or, better still, visit the amazing Wick Heritage Society Museum, if you visit the town.

Also pictured are the Telford Bridge up the glen at Struy, the Caledonian Canal at Fort Augustus and the Parliamentary Kirk at Duror.

Venture North NC500 - North Coast 500 Old Pulteney Visit Inverness Loch Ness

01/09/2026

It's World Letter Writing Day today. And one of the most important letters ever written in Scotland must surely be the Declaration of Arbroath? It was a plea to the Pope to recognise Scotland as an independent nation and Robert the Bruce as its legitimate King.

Dated 6th April 1320, it was written in Latin or sheepskin and wasn't signed in the way we would understand today - rather the various seals of the Earls and Barons were appended.

It's said to have inspired the US Declaration of Independence and is the reason why the designated Tartan Day in the USA is 6th April.

It's one particularly stirring section of the Declaration which is most often quoted and has inspired place mats, teatowels and t-shirts for decades....

"For as long as a hundred of us remain alive, never
will we on any conditions be subjected to the lordship of the English.
It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,
but for freedom alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."

As a Scot, it's hard not to be stirred by these words, whoever wrote the letter was clearly a fine wordsmith. It's likely to have been the Abbot of Arbroath Abbey who drafted the letter and one of the scribes would have actually written the words.

It's hard to imagine an e mail, or a social media post, having the same impact!

You can find out more about the Declaration of Arbroath at the splendid visitor centre at Arbroath Abbey, managed by Historic Environment Scotland. It's one of the best visitor centres I've been in. And you can wander round the ruined Abbey and its fascinating graveyard.

Historic Environment Scotland

31/08/2026

Our Celebration of Beauly and the Black Isle has its first outing for some time tomorrow night. We're incredibly fortunate to live in a part of Scotland with fabulous local produce. And it's a place steeped in history, offering a rich source of stories for this particular dinner.

The food helps tell the story of the place we call home and the menu features seafood, beef and lots of potato, including a potato rosti with beetroot and some fabulous roast potatoes, reflecting the importance of the Black Isle for growing seed potatoes, in particular.

In the winter we have bread and butter pudding for dessert - a lovely, comforting dish with our very own home made plum jam. But in the summer months, it's a strawberry shortcake dish as a tribute to the soft fruit heritage of the area.

And if the guests staying with us want to buy local produce we have a guide to where to buy it in every apartment. Local farm shops - Black Isle Berries and Robertson Farm Shop - are a great place to start. If you're looking for potatoes there's the Garguston Spud Hut and of course there's our own greengrocers in the village at Corner on the Square.

If you can't join us on Tuesday 1st September, we've got another one running on Saturday 12th. Book on line or give us a call on 01463 782800.

Corner on the Square Robertson’s The Larder Beauly Black Isle Berries Green Tourism

30/08/2026

Not yet the end of August but it seems Autumn is on the way. But like John Keats, the romantic poet, I prefer to call it the season of mellow fruitfulness.

Great berries in the hedgerows, fruit in the orchards, fresh veg from the garden and wonderful meat and game. You could say it’s a delicious season.

And, of course, John Keats has a Beauly connection. He and a friend visited the village when on a tour of Scotland and wrote the poem “On Some Skulls in Beauly Abbey”. It’s a fairly sombre reflection on the character of the generations of monks who were interred there. I think it’s fair to say he was not entirely generous in his view of the clergy!

But you too can wander in the grounds of the ruined Beauly Priory and imagine the lives of the monks who lived there. What is left is a fraction of the original building which, with its extensive gardens and orchards, would have been a hugely significant Christian site which attracted many visitors including royalty. For Mary Queen of Scots apparently came to visit on her travels round the Highlands.

But she's not the only Royal visitor to the Highlands, for James IV came on a religious pilgrimage every year of his reign to an equally important Christian site in a town a little further north from us here.

You can hear more about Beauly and its Priory, and find out which town was a magnet for royalty, at some of our events this coming week.

We've a Celebration of Beauly and the Black Isle on Tuesday 1st September, our Highland Banquet on Thursday 3rd, the North Coast 500 on Friday 4th, a Write Good Night on Saturday 5th and a Super Scots Lunch on Sunday 6th.

A very busy week, but plenty of opportunity to enjoy the fruits of Autumn - we've got lots of wonderful comfort food like shepherd's pie, beef cheek and soups galore! We still have some spaces, so give us a call on 01463 782800 or book on line if you fancy joining us.

Visit Inverness Loch Ness Visit Beauly NC500 - North Coast 500

29/08/2026

On this day in 1912 Ethel Moorhead smashed the case covering William Wallace's sword at the National Monument in Stirling.

It was one of her many protests in the fight for votes for women. And quite an appropriate place to take a stand - in the Hall of Heroes in the Wallace Monument. For there was not a woman to be seen in it.

But times change and there are now two busts of women in the Hall of Heroes, voted for by the public. Mary Slessor, a missionary in Nigeria, and Maggie Keswick Jencks, was an architect and founder, with her husband, of Maggie's - a charity which creates beautiful spaces alongside hospitals for cancer sufferers to meet and seek support.

They were selected from a shortlist of women, including a number of our Super Scots - Victoria Drummond, a marine engineer and Elsie Inglis, a medical pioneer. A tribute to these women is now part of the Hall of Heroes gallery in the Wallace Monument, as are the two new busts.

I think Ethel Moorhead would have been proud of this monument.

The National Wallace Monument NC500 - North Coast 500 Maggie's Centres

28/08/2026

Yayoi Kusama has died aged 97. We visited a very spotty and immersive show by this famous Japanese artist when we were last in Melbourne and it was utterly fabulous. And it got me thinking about Scottish art and where would you go to be blown away by sculpture in Scotland?

Here for Four on a Friday are my suggestions:

* This was Kasuma at her spotty best. The National Gallery for Scotland has a brilliant collection of art, which includes a piece by her, although not on display at the moment.

* the Kelpies are magnificent, whether you go and see them up close, or just pass them as you travel from Stirling to Edinburgh. But just remember kelpies are not cute - they are horrible creatures as you will discover if you come along to our North Coast 500 in 5 Objects dinner.

* Jupiter Artland is a wonderful 100 acre sculpture park, just outside Edinburgh. It features work by some of the best known names in the world of sculpture including Anish Kapoor and Andy Goldsworthy. But my favourite is probably the Charles Jencks landscape which is simply magical.

* Lotte Glob is a world renowned ceramicist who creates delightful pieces of art which sit easily in the environment she now calls home on the very north of mainland Scotland, near Durness. The pieces of art on display at her Sculpture Croft at Laide are as beautiful as their setting. One not to be missed if you're travelling around the North Coast 500.

NC500 - North Coast 500 .artland Jupiter Artland National Galleries of Scotland

27/08/2026

It was on this day in 1822 King George IV attended a Royal Gala performance of Rob Roy, a play adapted from the novel of the same name by Sir Walter Scott. Indeed most of Scott's stories were adapted for the stage at some point or another.

Scott is considered to have popularised, if not invented, the historical fiction genre. His stories were based around real historical events, although many of the characters were fictionalised and some of the people in the story who did exist in real life were possibly overly romanticised.

So who was the real Rob Roy MacGregor? I don't think anybody would argue he was a bit of a rogue. He'd been a cattle thief and ran what we would call a protection racket in modern time - he and his fellow clansman would be paid by landowners in the south to guard their cattle.

The MacGregors were outlawed as a clan, not once, but twice, over a period of 170 years. But were they any worse than any others? Stealing cattle was a fairly common occupation in those times. Fighting with other clans was also fairly run of the mill. And, in the case of Rob Roy, he was certainly not alone in supporting the Jacobite cause.

Rogue or folk hero? Whatever is true and it can be both at the same time, Rob Roy became a hugely popular figure in his lifetime and was eventually pardoned, partly thanks to Daniel Defoe who wrote about him in The Highland Rogue. And he's remembered in many different ways here in Scotland and across the world - in books, films, plays and even a cocktail!

The Rob Roy Way runs from Drymen to Pitlochry and passes through many places associated with Rob Roy. A small detour takes you to his grave at Balquhidder, although some dispute this. His statue stands just below the back walk to the castle in Stirling and his name has even been used for a popular pipe band and highland dance group in Kingston, Ontario.

Talking of pipe bands, tonight is the last chance to see Strathpeffer Pipe Band perform in Beauly Square...

Rob Roy Pipe Band & Highland Dancers

Downright Gabbler

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