There are around 100 bothies in Scotland – stone cottages, left unlocked for use as overnight shelters by travellers in wild places. You might find yourself bunking up with strangers, sharing whisky, a place by the hearth, a ghost story. Or you might be alone in the vast darkness of a remote glen, the firelight flickering from your window the only sign of human life for miles around. These can be beautiful places – but odd, too. Here are three of the strangest:
Strathchailleach
The former home of the hermit James McRory-Smith, known as Sandy, this three-room cottage is near Sandwood Bay, Britain’s best beach, according to some. Strathchailleach is an experience but perhaps not a place to stay alone. Sandy died in 1999, but his weird murals – a tree with a face, a woman with a harp – are still on the walls, and add to the odd feeling that the old man is still there. “If he liked you it was alright,” one of his friends once told me. “But if he didn’t, he would come to the door with a hatchet.” Geoff Allan, author of the newly published Scottish Bothy Bible, admits: “I didn’t spend the night there. I only visited for the day, and that weirded me out enough.”
Distance from civilisation: A three-mile drive from Kinlochbervie to the car park at Blairmore, and then a six-mile walk.
Gelder Shiel Stables
One for the royalists. Situated on the Balmoral estate, this bothy affords hikers the possibility of spotting the royal family at the nearby hunting lodge when they are in residence. “I just happened to be there on a quiet Monday evening, and there was the Queen,” recalls Allan. “Prince Philip was on the barbecue.” An even stranger sight might greet you, were you to visit in October, when, it has been reported, Donald Trump is to make his state visit. You might chance upon the president sharing a picnic rug with the corgis.
Distance from civilisation: A three-mile walk from Easter Balmoral village.
Kearvaig
Remote is an overused word, but just right for this bothy on the Cape Wrath peninsula, mainland Britain’s most northwesterly point. The cape is used by the Ministry of Defence as a bombing range, and the only people who live in this vast area year-round are the couple who run the cafe in the lighthouse. (They were once separated from each other for more than a fortnight over Christmas when she went off to buy the turkey and found herself cut off from home by snow). So this is a bothy that will best suit those with a taste and tolerance for isolation. On the other hand, you are likely to have the beautiful sandy beach, just a few steps from the bothy, to yourself.
Distance from civilisation: After a two-mile drive from Durness to Keoldale, take the the small passenger ferry for the brief crossing over to the cape (the ferryman was born in a nearby cottage said to be haunted by a spectral wildcat). A minibus takes you 11 miles up the track to the lighthouse. From there, it’s a mere seven-mile hike to the bothy.
