Want the secret to making the world’s best butteries? It may have something to do with walks up Bennachie and other mountains, if Mark Barnett’s weekends are anything to go by. The reigning world buttery champion loves spending his Saturday mornings hiking in the Aberdeenshire hills. In fact, speaking to the P&J at the Inverurie Farmers Market, he’d just completed his 100th ascent of Bennachie, part of an ongoing effort to climb it 52 times this year — that’s once every weekend.
The reason? Fitness, says Mark, who’s trying to look after his health more as he approaches his 55th birthday. “It’s a worry for everybody,” he says. “The older you get, the less you tend to do.
” Bennachie, however, is small fry for Mark. The previous weekend, he completed the 18-mile Lochnagar loop that takes in five of Scotland’s 282 Munros — mountains over 3,000 feet. How does a buttery champion start his weekend right? With an early rise Mark’s weekends don’t start with the walk.
The New Pitsligo man is out of bed at 10.30pm on Friday night so he can start baking at midnight. Wife Lorraine is up at 4.
30am so the couple can be ready for their weekend round of farmers’ markets, where Mark’s world buttery title is proudly on display. He wears many hats. He used to work as a baker on oil rigs and now works for Aberdeenshire Council’s roads department.
Lorraine runs New Pitsligo chipper, . Mark’s — Covid and various other challenges mean the world buttery champio.