Wick porridge enthusiast creates a stir by making spurtles for charity
Porridge enthusiast Doug Mackay has turned his hand to spurtle-making – using wood that once formed a pew in a Wick church.
Working on a bench-top lathe in his garage, he hopes to create 40 of the traditional-style stirring implements and is selling them to raise money for an international charity that provides children’s meals.
Doug (59) set himself the task after taking part in the World Porridge Making Championship for the second year in a row. The winner of the annual competition in Carrbridge receives the coveted Golden Spurtle.
“It’s that experience that got me into making spurtles,” he said.
Doug is selling his spurtles in aid of Mary’s Meals, a Scottish-based charity that ensures more than 2.4 million hungry children around the world receive a nutritious meal every school day.
“They are doing an amazing job and providing a simple solution to world hunger,” Doug said.
“I’m asking for a donation to Mary’s Meals of £38.50 which will support school meals for two children for a whole year.
“I set an initial target of 10 spurtles and have enough wood for 40. It would be great to raise more for such a good cause.
“Forty spurtles would support school meals for 80 children for a year. I’m covering the postage and have just shipped the first two spurtles.”
Hamlyns of Scotland, main sponsor of the World Porridge Making Championship, has agreed to support Doug by supplying oatmeal and some merchandise for each order – making it “a little porridge-making kit”.
The wood comes from an old pitch-pine pew from Wick’s Bridge Street Church, which closed in 2009.
When Doug and his wife Karyn moved house in 2018, they found that the pew had been used as an outdoor bench.
Doug, who works as a developments manager for Dana Petroleum in Aberdeen, has been producing spurtles when time allows on a lathe that he bought last year.
“I did woodworking at school, that was the last time I did it,” he said. “I thought I need to try that again and make some spurtles. It takes about 40 minutes to turn one.”
On a quirky note, Doug suggests that the ecclesiastical link to the wood could make his spurtles more appealing to left-handed cooks of a superstitious nature.
“If you’re left-handed, you’re naturally trying to stir anticlockwise,” he pointed out. “But there is a strong myth that anticlockwise stirring would invoke the devil and bring bad luck.
“If you’re superstitious, you don’t stir anticlockwise with a spurtle.”
As the wood he is using has been “blessed in the church”, he says, there should be no qualms about the consequences of anticlockwise stirring.
“Last year I made a couple and gave it to the [world championship] winner and his friend, who is left-handed, just as a bit of fun,” Doug said. “Then I thought I’d take it further this year and raise some money for charity.”
Bridge Street Church was built between 1862 and 1864 and Doug therefore reckons the wood is at least 160 years old.
“My guess is it would have been an early pew in the church, and it could have come from another church to Bridge Street,” he said. “The pine is unusually dense in this wood.”
Doug has made a video to show how a spurtle is made.
“I tried the pitch pine and it was good enough to turn,” he explained. “It’s not a normal wood for turning, because it’s flaky, being soft. You don’t get a good finish with a chisel – you have to do a lot of sanding on it, so it takes a bit more work to make one.
“I take it through eight grades of sandpaper to get it down to the finish that I want.”
He adds beeswax as a finishing touch.
Anyone wishing to order a spurtle can contact Doug on 07515 684303.
He added: “I don’t want to have to make 40 before Christmas, that was my only concern.
“I’ve got eight out of the 10 already, so if I got another 10 by Christmas I’d be happy with that.
“Exiles from Caithness might want a spurtle from Wick and I guess once this wood is gone I don’t have any more. So it could be limited in terms of getting a little bit of Wick.”
Doug cooked with oats from his native county when he took part in the 2024 World Porridge Making Championship last month. Although he again missed out on the prizes, Doug said it had been a great opportunity to “explore the limitless possibilities of porridge” and meet fellow enthusiasts from around the world.
