Glamis Castle: How the historical venue makes the best afternoon tea

We had a magical day out at Glamis castle, an historical venue which was the childhood home of the late Queen Mother. Our morning was spent with Catering Manager Margaret talking about how they use their own produce from the land and what makes the best afternoon tea.

What would you say is your most popular menu item?

We play to what the public wants with the menu. We used to do a posh menu but the public didn’t want it. At lunch time they want a soup and sandwich or the classic toasties. Our bridies are also very, very popular, they are made in house with our own venison.

Does Scottish produce play an important part of the menu?

Yes it does, we use our own deer from the estate, all of our beef and venison comes from here. We do venison bridies, venison lasagne and venison chilli for baked potatoes. Everyone wants to try it and they love it. There has always been cattle on the land but we have recently decided to start using the beef as well as deer.

What do you think makes the best afternoon tea? 

Nobody can finish our afternoon tea. You get your money’s worth, it does them 2 days. They ask “is someone joining us”. A lot of people have said our afternoon tea is better than competitors and for less money. The service is important, they are well looked after. Our customers like to see it set up all nice. We include homemade venison pies and lots of cakes. The majority of our cakes come from JB Foods as well as the ones we make from scratch.

How do you create a great experience for visitors?

They are greeted when they come in, the staff are all smiling. We speak to everyone individually. Sometimes it’s difficult because there is a language barrier. We are actually just about to get our menus done in Italian, Spanish and French. We mainly attract tourists but we do get a number of returning visitors as well.