Scone Spy enjoys a traditional Scottish tearoom in Stirling

Treacle, plain, fruit and apple and nutmeg scones. Bluebell Tea Room, Stirling. (Tina Norris)

PLEASE accept my most humble apologies, scone fans. I have erred.

Like Tiger Woods, Hugh Grant and a host of Westminster politicians I’m going to have to grovel and beg your forgiveness before we proceed.

My recent café espionage behaviour has fallen below the high standards demanded of the office.

I hope you accept this Mea Culpa – apparently not an Italian movie actress – and allow me to continue in the role.

In the past I have criticised others for bad tearoom etiquette.

Selfies while eating. Not taking one’s hat off while at the table. Pouring tea into a cup from a great height, like a Turkish waiter.

But I myself was guilty of my own flagrant café code violation recently, one which earned me a deeply deserved reprimand. I was in the Bluebell Tearoom in Stirling, having forgotten my notepad. I wanted to make a note of the charming china crockery so subtly tried to make a note on my phone.

For a brief moment it must have looked like I was ignoring my companion because our waitress appeared with a tea, a coffee and a very gentle rebuke.

“Now, isn’t the point of coming here to get off your phone and actually talk to each other,” she said in a gentle Antipodean accent. It was the gentlest of chidings but of course she was right. Mobile phones don’t quite belong alongside the charming crockery, white tablecloths and traditional cake cabinet of the Bluebell.

With so many hip sconeries out there – no, really – it was refreshing to enjoy a traditional Scottish tearoom like this.

Not that it’s full of prim, matronly ladies in starched blouses sipping loose-leaf tea though – in fact there are none.

The menu suggests the key ingredients of a good tearoom are local produce, delicious home baking and a truly relaxing experience.

I suspect the families and couples who come here do so because it delivers all of these.

With my phone safely tucked away I dig into the Bluebell Toastie, filled with Orkney bacon, chicken, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise.

You know what people don’t pay attention to these days? Nice bread. Too often it’s treated by cafes simply as a delivery system there to stop your hands getting covered in mustard. But here the bread is notably tasty.