MOUNTAIN LIVES
Last year, Juls Stodel walked to every official bothy in Britain on a journey that took in some of the most remote, mountainous terrain in the country, dozens of sausages and one child’s sled.
In 2022, Juls Stodel set out alone to visit every bothy in Britain. Currently 106 of these remote and simple shelters are looked after by the Mountain Bothies Association (MBA) and she planned to spend at least one night in every single one. The journey was one through landscape – some of the roughest in England, Scotland and Wales – and through the particular histories of each restored building.
For those not already in the know, a bothy is a remote house or hut, often an old crofter’s or shepherd’s place, that has been renovated for use by hillside wanderers. They’re simple places. No electricity, taps, lights or beds, just a wooden sleeping platform and a watertight roof. Some are tiny, accommodating only two people, while some have two floors and several rooms. Bothies can provide vital aid in an emergency and, more often, welcome shelter and brilliant craic after a long walk. After being evicted from her flat, Juls decided to spurn more official, electrified housing for a while and head instead to these homes in the hills. There’s not much better than a good yarn in a bothy, and afterwards she told us the tale…
How it star ted
“I stumbled on my first bothy by accident a fair number of years ago. It was in Yorkshire, and I remember pushing open the door and being confused because here was something that looked fully laid out for people to stay, but there wasn’t any road going to it and it wasn’t locked. I put two and two together and figured it must be a bothy.”
How the idea came about
“I made the plan to go on the Big Bothy Walk pretty quickly. I’d previously done the St Wilfrid’s Way pilgrimage trail, which goes from Hexham to Edinburgh, in May 2022, and had passed through Haughtongreen bothy.
“In June my landlord decided to sell the flat I was living in, so I had some decisions to make. I remembered that night at Haughtongreen and thought that there were so many more bothies I could be exploring. It seemed like the perfect opportunity, while I didn’t have other responsibilities, to undertake something big.”
The plan is hatched
“Initially I planned to run with the seasons: to start in the east Borders, then move west, north, come back to the central Highlands and go south to Northumberland, Cumbria and Wales for winter. I broke it into routes of anything between two and seven both
