Meet the Struan Man Who Has Measured Every Sausage Roll in Perthshire Since 1994, and Has Had to Buy a Longer Tape Measure This Week
Hamish Brodie, 68, keeps a notebook of every roll, by length, flake and 'meat-to-pastry ratio'.
A tape measure: the essential tool of the serious pastry man. Photo: 多多123, “B&Q Tape Measure”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Hamish Brodie, 68, from near Struan, has measured every sausage roll he has eaten in Perthshire since 1994, and keeps the results in a series of notebooks that he calls “the Archive”.
“It started at a wedding in Pitlochry,” he said. “There was a roll on the buffet that was suspiciously short. I measured it with a napkin. Three and a quarter inches. I’ve never forgotten. I’ve never forgiven.”
Since then, Hamish has measured more than 4,000 rolls from bakeries, cafés, petrol stations and village halls. He records length, flakiness on a scale of one to ten, and what he calls the “meat-to-pastry ratio”, which he will not explain to outsiders.
This week, Hamish visited Blair Atholl’s new bakery and was forced to stop halfway through measuring. “My tape measure is 12 inches,” he said. “I ran out of tape. I had to put my thumb on it and go again. I’ve ordered a joiner’s tape. Five metres. I’m not taking any risks.”
His wife, Morag, says she has accepted the hobby. “He measures everything,” she said. “He measured our wedding cake. He measured the baby. To be fair, the baby was very long.”
Hamish says his favourite roll of all time is “still to be eaten”. He is going back on Tuesday.
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Letters to the Editor
The views expressed are those of the reader, and frankly that's on them.
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I’ve seen Hamish at work. He doesn’t smile. He just measures and nods. It’s like the Antiques Roadshow.
— Ann R., Blair Atholl, 1 November 2026 -
He came to our bakery in 2003 and said our roll was half an inch short. Owner’s never got over it.
— Gary W., Aberfeldy, 1 November 2026
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