"Nothing worth having comes easy: the phrase rings especially true when it comes to overnighting in a bothy", said Grace Cook in the Financial Times.
The free-to-use shelters have "no running water, no bathroom, no heating and no electricity". But they're increasingly used by hikers looking for a place to camp overnight in the depths of the countryside and "disconnect" from their hectic lives.
Today, there are more than 100 bothies in the UK, mostly in Scotland but also in rural England and Wales. Most of these tiny huts are maintained by the Mountain Bothies Association (MBA) and are free to use but can't be booked in advance – so it's a case of turning up and seeing who is already there (always bring a tent in case you need to set up camp outside). The National Trust also operates 11 bothies, and these can be reserved online, with prices starting at £15 a night.
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Anyone camping in a bothy must adhere to the MBA's Bothy Code, leaving the shelter clean and tidy, and respecting other visitors. "That is, if you can find" it, said Hugh Tucker on BBC Travel. A phone signal isn't guaranteed in many of the remote locations and, "even with a well-marked map", your chosen bothy "can prove elusive".
Every bothy has a "previous life": many are old shepherd's huts that fell into disrepair as hill farming declined in the early 20th century. Then, after the Second World War, people increasingly began hiking for leisure and using these abandoned huts for shelter. The MBA was set up in the 1960s by Bernard Heath and his friends to save the deserted buildings from ruin, and a network of volunteers work to maintain them.
Don't expect anything luxurious, though. You'll be "lucky" if there's a "long-drop toilet" and, while most bothies have a stove, there's "no guarantee" you'll find any fuel. Be sure to bring your own sleeping bag and supplies, as you would with a typical camping trip.
The company you'll find is entirely "unpredictable". When I arrived at the Nant Syddion bothy in Wales' Cambrian Mountains, I found "two cyclists in the main room", so went to roll out my mat upstairs before joining them. We made a meal together and then stories began to "flow" around the fire as we sipped whisky; socialising is "one of the best parts of bothying" (although you can keep to yourself if you prefer).
I took a "spectacular" hike, staying in three National Trust bothies, said Sarah Baxter in The Guardian. Dotted along North Devon's Exmoor coast, the simple huts were perfect for a "low-cost bothy-to-bothy walking weekend". The first, situated in the "green, gorse-bright slopes" of West Challacombe, was an old stone barn within walking distance of the seaside village of Combe Martin. From here, we snaked along the coast to Foreland bothy and Heddon Orchard bothy. As we strolled by the sea one evening on our way back from a pub dinner, "the full moon glared like a second sun – no need for torches. It was pure magic and, if we hadn't been bothying, we'd have missed it all."
