IN the same way as the astronomer watches for the North Star, the ‘bothyer’ watches for a chimney. The grey stone stack stretching up over the rise of the glen is the guiding sight that the long walking day is coming to an end. There, through snow-flicked conifers, across valleys of ice and far-away mountains, beyond the charcoal line of a freezing stream, lies Scotland’s most perfect secret: the lone bothy.
Indeed, Britain’s northernmost country is the homeplace of the bothy. These small wooden huts or stone cottages, once farm buildings used for labourers, are now remote refuges for any hardy traveller, to be entered free of charge. Of the 100 bothies across the UK, 83 can be found within the Scottish borders, all cared for by the Mountain Bothies Association (MBA). This charity, which has won The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (the highest award given to volunteer groups across the UK), was established in 1965 and credits the post-First World War and 1930s mountaineering and hill-walking trend for creating the modern bothying pastime.
Now, 50 years on, the MBA continues to maintain the bothy network for the benefit of all those people who love these beguiling places. Bothies are challenging to reach at best and dangerous to reach at worst. They are also expensive to repair and restore, as well as to keep in good order. The Scottish weather has no mercy and the physical toll on the buildings means the MBA is constantly having to drain its pockets to fix windows and doors, rebuild chimneys and mend failing roofs. It is a feat of communal effort overseen by an ageing group of people, many of whom have been part of the organisation for 30-odd years. The MBA survives on membership fees, donations and by the labour of volunteer work parties. Only with much-needed young volunteer help can the existing team of caretakers continue to keep this unique tradition alive.
Denne historien er fra January 13, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra January 13, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
