DISCOVER Bothies
We’d all like a little place in the country – and we’ve all got one, too.
TAKE A MOMENT and picture the house of your dreams in the countryside. Then imagine it could be yours for the night with no cost and no hassle. The only thing you have to do is get to it.
There are in fact around 100 houses like this in Britain and they’re known as bothies. They tend to split us walkers. You either know what they are or you don’t. If you do, you’ve either stayed in one or you haven’t. If you have, you either think they’re the best thing since sliced bread or a type of hell only fit for the craziest adventurer. I have loved them since the day I first pushed open the slightly-jammed door of the mountain’s version of an Airbnb.
For those that don’t know, bothies are uninhabited buildings in remote locations where anyone can spend the night for free. They vary hugely, but imagine a small, deserted croft/cottage/house, inside which there will always be a table, a few plastic chairs, lots of mouse-droppings and probably a ghostly presence. They’re normally owned by whoever owns the ground on which they sit, but they’re often managed by the Mountain Bothies Association, or MBA, a wonderful group of enthusiasts who dedicate much of their spare time to the upkeep of these unique places.
Most bothies are old buildings which have been providing shelter for adventurous walkers for quite some time. But occasionally a newly available house will be taken on and, in 2017, three came into use thanks to the MBA and a spend of £80,000+. They were Abyssinia in Glen Kinglas, Flitting Ford in Northumberland, and Cae Amos in Snowdonia. When I heard the news about Cae Amos, a wave of excitement surged through me. Bothies in Wales are rare things – Scotland is the true home of bothying – and I knew this one would provide an excuse to explore one of Snowdonia’s quieter corners.
Finding out the location of bothies used to be a strictly word-of-mouth thing: chatting to fellow bothy lovers, about bothies, while actually staying in a bothy. It’s a wonderful way to discover new places, although the internet is making it rapidly obsolete. It’s the difference between going to a secondhand bookshop and perusing the shelves for that long sought-after volume, and ordering it instantly for nex
