Top 5 Shopping in Tain, Scotland

Reviewed By davidharrylarder - Retford, United Kingdom

UNIQUE TAIN POTTERY HAS ARISEN OUT Of CREATIVE PASSION & HARD WORK My wife has always liked pottery. So when she spotted a rather small sign leading to a tiny road off the A9 going north to the Highlands of SCOTLAND, we had to stop. Nearby the village of Tain you will find a unique pottery. At first sight it looks to be a dump. The old farm buildings which house it have had to be adapted, waterproofed and gradually grown from the one barn into what has become quite a major workshop. This is a true family business and I could tell that the employees which were working there in addition really enjoyed their jobs. My wife and I were treated to a look around the whole process which had begun in the late 80s when 2 partners who had worked together in London since 1976 decided to move from London and find a place to make a pottery of their own. It is well worth stopping off to spend an hour looking at this process, which is not simple.Older children of 11 upwards should enjoy this-being able to chat to work people who are skilful. It starts with the lifting of heavy sacks of ball clay brought from Devon. There are various refining processes to ensure that it’s turned into a liquid and then to a solid to get all the air out. The clay which will be worked can go through 3 ways of making pots, moulding it, throwing it on a wheel and another 200-year-old process using a jigger and a jolly. Find out about those for yourself. The special thing that this pottery does is double glazing. No- that is not the insertion of glass into windows, but glazing the pottery twice by high firing. A lot of the equipment came from the closing down of potteries in Stoke-on-Trent. Magnificent tartan plates, rich deep blue vases and every type of household pottery you could imagine is made here- all by hand. My wife took a liking to a Robertson tartan design put on with little rubber rollers to a teapot and 2 mugs. She loved the deft way in which the lady rolled patterns confidently onto the already glazed surface before it was re-fired. You go through a shop to get in to the working area which is more extensive than you would think and has an upstairs workshop as well. If they are busy there is a 20 minute video of this at which you can watch the manufacturing. Besides the shop there is however a series of shelves for “seconds”. Most of these look perfect to the untrained eye. I was surprised to hear that the markets for this pottery are in Scotland itself and for export only to the United States. I do not know whether the company wishes to expand-but it easily could. I’ve never seen such pottery before and a good marketing manager and some spend on advertising ,other countries would open up further export markets. But the joy of how it is at the moment-a family business with friends- has a Scottish charm and you feel that every item is produced with care. The educational process of making pots deserves a wider audience. We both felt that the signage to the pottery and outside of it could have been clearer and stronger. We would recommend that anyone travelling on the A9 should not miss this experience.