Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Me and My Buttery: Meet the Detroit bakery serving Aberdeen treats to stars like Duncan Jones

Ackroyd's Scottish Bakery has a fan in filmmaker and rowie-fanatic Duncan Jones.
Ackroyd's Scottish Bakery has a fan in filmmaker and rowie-fanatic Duncan Jones.

When buttery-fanatic Duncan Jones, the filmmaker and son of David Bowie, needed a fix of Aberdeen’s finest while in the US last month, he turned to the Ackroyd’s Scottish Bakery in Detroit.

The family-run business has made Scottish baked goods for more than 70 years and butteries for the past three, ever since a customer put in an order for a batch.

So Jones was in good hands when he tweeted that he was ready to tuck in.

Me and My Buttery caught up with Megan Ackroyd, the granddaughter of the Ackroyd’s founder, and her partner and business general manager Joe Hakim, to ask about their status as the leading source of traditionally-made butteries in the US, and their mission to make Rod Stewart a customer.

Hi, Megan and Joe. Before we get on to the celeb chat, I have to ask: How do you eat your butteries?

Joe: I just ate one! This one was plain but I either have them plain or with Robertson’s Extra Ginger marmalade or jam, whatever you guys call it.

I keep a jar in the refrigerator for my own personal use because I love ginger a lot.

Detroit bakery butteries
Joe and Megan tuck into their famous butteries.

Ackroyd’s has been around for many years, but why did you start baking butteries?

Joe: Sometime in 2019, a customer from out west sent us an email asking if we could make some butteries. So we gave it a go and decided that they tasted really good.

Neither of us had ever been to Aberdeen but we sent the customer a batch and he really liked them. So we put them on the menu.

That was three years ago, and now we have customers who – and I’m not kidding – will reach their free shipping threshold with just butteries.

They’ll order 10 or 12 packs at a time.

We have one customer out in New Mexico and she orders eight to 10 packages a month.

Are you surprised at how popular they are?

Joe: We sell a lot of traditional items [haggis, black pudding and mealie pudding is also on the menu at Ackroyd’s] and people have a very strong idea of what, for example, a meat pie or haggis should taste like.

But the butteries are universally well-liked, no matter if it’s someone from Aberdeen trying them or someone trying it for the first time.

Detroit bakery butteries
The butteries at Ackroyd’s are a huge hit with customers across the US.

What’s the history behind the bakery?

Megan: My grandfather started it in 1949, and I took it over from my father.

We have a really enthusiastic, loyal customer base and I wanted to be able to continue the tradition for all the families that buy from us.

Who are you customers?

Joe: We have people that have been coming to us for decades. We started shipping from Detroit about 10 years ago and now ship across the whole of the United States.

The head of the Tartan Week festival in New York City told me we are one of the few places still making a lot of these things in the traditional manner.

And it’s not always the easiest stuff to sell. Think of the average American’s diet, and black pudding isn’t a part of that.

It must have been great to see Duncan Jones tweeting about your butteries.

Joe: It’s always fun to see where your food ends up. We’ve have had some connections with other famous people and it’s always nice to see really genuine enjoyment from them.

What connections?

Joe: We’ve sent scones to Tenille Dashwood, an Australian professional wrestler who has about 1.5m Instagram followers.

We sent food to Sasha Banks, another pro wrestler in WWE. But we’ve never sent any to [Scottish wrestler] Drew McIntyre.

Megan: We also get a lot of musicians coming into town because it’s Detroit.

Joe: Yeah, and I can’t confirm this but I was told that when Radiohead came over a few years ago, some of our food went to them.

I try my best when people are in town to entice them with our food. I’ve tried to get Rod Stewart to come through, but that hasn’t worked yet.


If you have an unusual or interesting way to eat your buttery, we’d love to hear about it.

Get in touch with the food and drink team using the contact form below.

An error has occurred while loading your details. Please click the following link to try again - if the issue persists, please don't hesitate to contact us. Try again by refreshing the page.


For more in this series…