Meet the Crieff Gran, 81, Who Puts the Kettle On Every Time She Hears a Motorbike, ‘in Case It’s One of Mine’

By our Local Characters Correspondent

Isobel Rattray, 81, lives on a hill road just outside Crieff, and she has a rule. Every time she hears a motorbike, she puts the kettle on.

“I’ve got five boys,” she said. “Four of them ride motorbikes. They’re all over Scotland. Any one of them could turn up at any time. So when I hear an engine, I put the kettle on. If it’s one of mine, the tea’s ready. If it’s not, I have a cup myself. Nobody loses.”

Her late husband once worked out that she boiled the kettle about 30 times a day in summer, when the bikers are out. “He said I was costing him a fortune in electricity,” she said. “I said, ‘Well, you shouldn’t have bought them their first bikes, should you?'”

Her sons say the system works. “You come round the last bend and there she is at the door with a mug,” said her eldest, who lives in Stirling. “She can tell my bike from the others at half a mile. She says it ‘sounds like it needs a service’. She’s usually right.”

Isobel says she has been delighted by Ewan McGregor’s comments about his favourite ride ending with a cup of tea at his parents’ house. “That’s exactly right,” she said. “That’s what a ride’s for. All the rest is just getting here.”

She has one complaint. “The postman’s got an electric van now,” she said. “Doesn’t make a sound. I used to have his tea ready. Now he just appears. It’s very unsettling,” she added.

The real story: Ewan McGregor's favourite ride (The Courier)