The beauty of BOTHIES
As use of these rural mountain shelters grows in popularity, we find out about an organisation of volunteers working hard to preserve them for posterity
For generations of walkers and mountaineers, there’s a special feature of their journeys that has always brought much comfort at the end of a day out in the elements. This is the bothy, a simple building in a remote area, that requires no pre-booking and is free to stay in – you simply turn up. Bothies have given shelter, warmth and a safe place to spend the night far back in history as well being an iconic feature of the most rugged landscapes in Britain.
And now bothies are having a bit of a renaissance. With the release of The Scottish Bothy Bible that for the first time reveals the exact location of Scotland’s bothies in one book – they were previously known through word of mouth or stumbled upon by accident – more people than ever are using these rural shelters. Add to this the recent trend for people
Bothies can easily fall into disrepair, leaving them in danger of being unusable
wanting to escape the busy, digital world, get off-grid and explore the wilderness and suddenly people are flocking to the type of unhabited places where bothies are located to give shelter.
But as bothies are generally buildings that have fallen out of use by landowners and farmers and often located in the harshest climates in the UK, these buildings can easily fall into disrepair, leaving them in danger of becoming unusable.
That’s where the Mountain Bothies Association (MBA) comes to the rescue – a network of around 4,300 members, many of whom volunteer their time to repair and sometimes totally restore bothies.
MBA member Liz Bibby (71) first discovered bothies while mountaineering as a teenager. She found they not only gave her shelter but also a chance to meet likeminded people. You cannot book a bothy just for yourself, so different groups of walkers often end up meeting in the same one. As Lizzy grew up, she wanted to give back and help keep bothies in use. In her role with the MBA, she has one particular bothy in Glen Spean, Fort William, that she is responsible for tending to, even giving it a new roof a couple of years ago. She also loves getting involved in bothy renovations around the country where she and other volunteers bring life back to a bothy that may have become a ruin.
“It’s so important to preserve bothies because if we didn’t have them, we’d miss being able to be out in wild places with the joy of meeting new people, exchanging stories over a fire,” says Liz. She adds that in the past bothies have even saved lives when people have been out in very dangerous weather conditions and needed shelter. “For me, I still love to stay in a bothy, but doing this work has allowed me to give back and has kept me young.”