Review
If lockdown has enabled one thing, it's the chance to catch up on some reading and tv watching. This particular book has been sitting on my shelf for the last couple of years, but it is only in the last couple of weeks that I've gotten around to checking it out. As always, I haven't been paid to give my thoughts and my opinion is entirely my own, whatever you think of it.
Bothy
The book outlines the location and amenities of all the bothies that are placed around Scotland. A bothy is a simple house structure, usually made of brick, that is free to stay in overnight. It usually contains a raised platform for sleeping and a fireplace for cooking. It's a basic structure for staying in if your hillwalking over couple of days. They are vital in the winter, if climbers or walkers get caught out in bad weather conditions. Showing the location of these shelters has its advantages and disadvantages, more of which I'll cover in this post.
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| Book Structure |
Layout and Information
The book has been well laid out and easy to understand. It has been split into 3 sections including the history of the bothy and a top 5 bothies for different areas of the country. The information about each bothy is well explained and it also gives details of local amenities and attractions near by. Many of the bothies do not have toilet facilities, although there is a section that lists the bothies that do have outdoor toilets. The photographs that accompany the description of each bothy are a high quality giving a real feeling of the structure in the wild countryside. It's useful too, that the book gives a detailed explanation of how to get to the bothy, in some cases there are multiple routes.
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| Route |
It's interesting to read the different bothies and to get a sense of its history and how it has been maintained over the years. The book does detail basic mountain craft and survival. This book is easy to access and read from a non hill walker viewpoint. My concern was that it would attract those people not used to the remote wilderness that some of these bothies are situated. This may cause more people under equipped to be rescued from the Scottish countryside. I suppose the advantage here is that it gives better information for walkers of the bothies in each area as a back up place to stay. My conclusions are that this is a fantastic read for those that want to find out a little more about the past, the scenery and mountains Scotland has to offer.
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| Typical Bothy image |
Overall 5/5
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