scone spy recommends

turnbull’s

high sT, galashiels, Td1 1sd

“It’s a cool design . . . pale green painted and wallpapered walls and stripped wooden flooring. Mellow jazz plays quietly in the background.

“My fruit scone comes with ramekins of butter and jam and my dining companion’s with an additional one of clotted cream.

“They are big, firm on the outside, still moist inside and not crumbly or messy in the slightest.

“A real couple of corkers.”

apples for jam

high sT, melrose, Td6 9pa

“There’s no danger of bought-in standardisation and we can see home-baked goodies in five glass bell jars on the counter.

“And we get a wee buzz as we see a pile of fresh scones among them.

“There are two types – fruit, which we choose, and cheese.

“The scone was soft and crumbly with chunks of fresh butter and a little jar of jam.”

ochiltrees at abbotsford abboTsford house, melrose, Td6 9bq

“Despite asking for just one scone to share, we’re brought a twin set. All right, you twisted our arms.

“Soft and moist, without being too crumbly, they had a decent amount of fruit and bouncing, thick jam.

“Could it have been that when Sir Walter Scott famously wrote: ‘For love is heaven, and heaven is love’, he was actually thinking about scones? I think so.”

main street trading company

maiN sT, sT boswells, Td6 0aT

“The book shop is a higgledypiggledy gem. There’s also an award- winning deli with a fantastic display of cheeses, local and far flung, that have won acclaim, plus plenty of tempting spices, jams and chutneys.

“The fruit scones are light and crumbly and the cheese one has a fantastic tang to it that really kicks in hard at the end.”