Latest news with #NiallMunro
Scotsman
30-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
‘Amazing' brunch loved by Nigella Lawson coming to Scottish city
Speciality coffee roastery, Birch, has launched a sit in brunch menu at their Inverness cafe. Located at 21 High Street in Inverness city centre, Birch will now offer a weekly changing menu of brunch and lunch dishes made with local Scottish ingredients and foraged Isle of Skye produce. Founded by Skye local, Niall Munro, in 2020, Birch was inspired by trips to coffee mecca, Melbourne. Niall wanted to replicate the Melbourne café style back in his hometown, but with beautiful, locally sourced products from the Scottish Highlands and Islands, and with a firm focus on coffee. The Portree cafe opened in 2020, and Inverness in 2024. Earlier this year Birch opened their third site, Birch Bakery and Roastery, a speciality Viennoiserie, on the outskirts of Portree. The brunch and lunch menu will change weekly and focus on seasonal produce, mainly sourced from Scotland and the Highlands, with everything from the sourdough and granola to the lacto-fermented chilli made in-house. It will include Birch's scrambled eggs on sourdough with chorizo, lacto-fermented chilli and parmesan, which was a personal favourite of Nigella's when she visited Birch's cafe in Portree. The Birch scrambled eggs The new menu will be available for both sit-in or takeaway, with espresso-based drinks available, alongside a refined, monthly changing pour-over menu. The High Street cafe will continue to sell its popular specialty pastries, including almond croissants and pastel de nata, and coffee beans and merchandise is also available to purchase. Some dishes from the current brunch menu include: Birch Granola with blueberry and orange, and Black Isle Dairy yoghurt Sourdough toast with homemade preserves Scrambled eggs on sourdough with chorizo, lacto-fermented chilli and parmesan Avocado on sourdough with baked feta, confit tomato, sesame and lime Topped focaccias: Great Glen Charcuterie venison salami, baked goats cheese, rocket and pine nuts Roasted butternut squash, whipped feta and basil oil A selection of cold drinks, made in-house, is also available, including freshly squeezed orange juice, iced blueberry matcha and Skye foraged rhubarb iced tea. Niall Munro, founder of Birch, said: 'Having recently celebrated one year of Birch in Inverness, we're changing things up a bit with the addition of brunch to our coffee shop on the mainland. "Our brunch has been hugely popular at our Portree cafe, and we're excited to bring this to Inverness, and be a part of the city's already flourishing food and drink scene.' Birch is open Monday-Saturday from 07:30-17:00, and Sundays from 09:00-17:00, and operates a walk-in only policy. For more information and updates, please visit
BBC News
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
In pictures: 10 years of Skye Live music festival
Skye Live - a festival celebrating traditional and electronic music - marks its 10th anniversary in founder and co-festival director Niall Munro said there were often times when he feared the event would not survive beyond a few said: "For the first five, six years, we never sold out and we never made a penny."We had nights where we were running around putting up posters ourselves, sending emails at midnight, trying to get people to take a chance on what we were doing. "It was a real labour of love. But we just weren't willing to let it go." Ambitious plans in 2016 to expand Skye Live saw it moved from an area in Portree called The Lump to the town's King George's said it almost destroyed the festival."Year two was a reality check," he said."We thought, 'great, we've doubled the line up, so surely ticket sales will double too'."That didn't happen. We stretched ourselves too thin and lost some of what made the festival special." Niall added: "Moving back to The Lump the following year was one of the best decisions we ever made. "The setting is crucial to what Skye Live is – when you're looking out over the water, with the Cuillins in the background, it doesn't feel like any other festival. "The location is as much a part of the experience as the music."Acts through the years have included Mercury Prize nominees Django Django, Highland folk supergroup Session A9, techno DJ Denis Sulta, and experimental indie artist Pictish Trail. Co-festival director Michael Pelligrotti said a defining moment for the festival came during the Covid pandemic when festivals did not go ahead to help prevent the spread of the 2021, Skye Live streamed live individual performances from island locations to more than one million said: "Covid could have been the end of the festival. "But we decided that if people couldn't come to Skye, we'd take Skye to them."Something magic happened. It blew up. The response was unbelievable."
