Shelter in wild and lonely places From a comment in a visitors’ book, the Mountain Bothies Association was formed in 1965, explains Denis Mollison.

hen the first ‘munroist’, A. bothy in Dumfries and Galloway, in gales, Bernard’s successors realised E. Robertson, and other late- in midwinter, Bernard was inspired that higher standards of work and a 19th century mountaineers by a comment in its visitors book, commitment to ongoing maintenance exploredW Scotland’s remoter glens they suggesting that cooperation among were essential for the long run. often made use of accommodation users was needed to “save the old Fortunately, the next wave of volunteers with gamekeepers and shepherds. The bothies from ruin”. He sought out its included professional joiners happy to houses they stayed in were mostly fairly author, organised the restoration of the demonstrate and pass on their skills. recently built, substantial stone cottages nearby ruin of Tunskeen in the summer provided by the well-off owners of of 1965, and at the end of that year Today, the MBA maintains around 100 stalking and sheep-farming estates from called a meeting at which the Mountain shelters, from Cape Wrath to southern which the original inhabitants had been Bothies Association (MBA) was Wales. The majority are on private cleared 50 or 100 years before. formed: to maintain simple unlocked estates, but there are also a fair number shelters in remote country for all who owned by the Forestry Commission and Over the first half of the 20th century, love the wild and lonely places. other public agencies, and by crofting however, and especially between the and community trusts. two world wars, social and economic Over the next four years, Bernard changes brought about new clearances, was the driver in the renovation of 15 Responsibility as estate workers became fewer, and of the best known and loved remote The MBA is still almost entirely those that remained less prepared to cottages, from the gamekeeper’s house voluntary, with just the membership live an hour or more from the nearest of Shenavall under An Teallach in records and payment system road. As they left, a new wave of Wester Ross to a mine cottage just out-sourced. The complexities mountaineers appeared, many of them below the highest point of the Pennines of maintenance have increased, adventurous and poor enough that in northern England. All the work was especially with regulations and safety they found the idea of free shelter in done by volunteers, and it is now hard requirements. But the idea is still very remote glens attractive. Interactions to believe that the somewhat slower- much that those who use and enjoy the and responses were varied: friendships moving committee of the Association bothies should take responsibility for between recreationists and the last complained about the costs, which maintaining them, with the inevitable residents, vandalism of what were totalled £500 for the 15 projects. hierarchy of maintenance organisers, thought of as possessions of the selfish committees and trustees concealed from rich, camaraderie among young people As well as motivating all who came the adventurer in the hills. finding freedom in the wild from their within his reach, Bernard developed hard working lives. the successful formula for getting Bothy users continue to have very permission for all this work, which was varied ideas of recreation, some just Bernard Heath to ask for nothing from the bothies’ using the place for necessary shelter, By the 1960s, the weather had taken owners, simply to be allowed to do the while others treat it as a destination, a toll of most of the remote cottages. work. Anything more would not have place for quiet thinking, or for partying. A few were cared for by groups, for been possible: owners could not afford You may have the bothy to yourself, or example the Cairngorm Club who to give property rights to buildings share it with a crowd of strangers: the renovated Corrour bothy in 1950. that were at key sites on their large and mixture and the uncertainty are part of But most would have been long gone valuable estates. the attraction. by now if it had not been for the imagination of a ‘rough stuff’ cyclist The downside of this successful rush As to the wider environment, they from Huddersfield called Bernard to “save the old bothies from ruin” fit well in the palimpsest of our wild Heath. Staying at the Backhill of Bush was that many of the repairs were of places, where nature and people have a somewhat temporary nature. After written alternately on the landscape. Top: Bernard Heath (right) and Bill Mejury a recently repaired roof was blown off There are still people alive who were planning the roof at Bearnais, 1974. www.reforestingscotland.org ISSUE 57 Reforesting Scotland SPRING/SUMMER 2018 p29 Ao place t be

brought up in some of these remote who prefer that. Scotland’s wild places Denis Mollison was chair of the buildings, and they, their children and are very real, part of the biological Mountain Bothies Association from 1978 grandchildren are usually delighted integrity of the planet that we need to to 1994, and since then has maintained to see them brought back to life to be conserve. But they are also part of our one of the bothies he was most involved used by anyone who passes. imagination, and those who intervene with (see warnscalehead.wordpress.com). in the wild need to respect the other Denis co-founded the John Muir Trust in The policy of only renovating existing communities that share it. January 1983 and has been Chair of the buildings also sets a constraint on Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust since recreational development, ensuring that mountainbothies.org.uk 2013. He is Professor Emeritus of Applied some glens are left bothy-free for those Probability at Heriot-Watt University.

Bothy Culture and Beyond was lucky enough to experience It is rooted in the traditional culture source of this vital experience – of the GRIT orchestra live at this of the Highlands and Islands, inspired connection outside and beyond our year’s Celtic Connections festival: by the electronic rave and house own individual existence. It is also Ian epic theatrical arrangement, scenes of the 1990s and embracing about reconnecting with the ground complete with aerial dance and trail of other world cultures – Punjabi, on which we stand. Bennett writes: “I stunt bikes, celebrating 20 years of Turkish, Scandinavian and Irish hope when you listen or dance to these the late Martyn Bennett’s album influences are all a part of his palette. tunes you get a sense of your own roots. Bothy Culture at the SSE Hydro in He invites us to contemplate at If you push back the pressure of urban Glasgow. once the difference and universality development for a second you might of human world culture and our remember where you came from. Go The word ‘bothy’, from the Gaelic connection with our own place. climb a mountain and see.” bothan, signifies a temporary structure or shelter without electricity or In Glasgow, amongst all the spectacle The desire to reconnect is there in running water. While this may and despite the flashing lights of the Reforesting Scotland’s Thousand Huts seem unremarkable in itself, the international stage, the most moving campaign. This is not driven by any iconic bothy as a symbol resonates moment of the night was when lone parochial nostalgia. It is not about in our minds as the site and source piper Findlay MacDonald silenced re-constructing the imaginary past or of the most memorable or life- the entire arena with a plaintively mirroring earlier Romanticisms; it is giving experiences of people’s lives: beautiful lament. It was just one of about finding the deep poetic lifelines an intense focus of gathering and those moments: the sense of being and drawing on this vital cultural companionship, of togetherness, of blown away by feeling a part of energy to look forwards, outwards. It sharing music, song and stories. Such something bigger than ourselves. is about how we choose to live in this conviviality has created a culture that Ethnologists might call it communitas. place; how we choose to inhabit the has enriched and inspired the poetic There is something magical, vital earth. imagination of the nation. about it. www.martynbennett.com Bennett’s music emerges from an At the heart of it, this is what intimate experience of the landscape. Bothy Culture is getting at: whether Mairi McFadyen is a creative the rhythmic entrainment of the ethnologist. E: hello@mairimcfadyen. Above: The Grit Orchestra performing at the rave or the cultural intimacy of scot Hydro during this year’s Celtic Connections festival. Photo: Bj Stewart. the mountain bothy, both are a p30 ISSUE 57 Reforesting Scotland SPRING/SUMMER 2018 www.reforestingscotland.org