Scottish Bothy Bible: The complete guide to Scotland s bothies and how to reach them

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Engaging travel writing documents the captivating history of each bothy and the adventurers who use them. In my world the most valuable interactions between people are those that don’t involve charging money. Basic bothy code is discussed, and key features of individual bothies; the details are left to his earlier book The Scottish Bothy Bible (which as mentioned is a terrific companion to this book). His engaging travel writing documents the fascinating history of each bothy and the adventurers who use them. Bothies are mostly situated in remote countryside and you must ensure that you are able to correctly use a map and compass before setting out.

This is a much slower burn novel than many that feature gangsters, much more about the tension between the people living and working in The Bothy, their almost hand-to-mouth existence, the mounting suspicion and paranoia as things start to go wrong and both Frank’s enemies, and The Conways who have put a bounty on Tom’s head, start to encroach.Never worked in journalism nor written much but there are only two two possible positions to take on the freedom to express an opinion…… Agreed there is nothing odd about anyone writing bothys and I would defend their right to do so. This is more a personal perspective of the 26 featured bothies and in this respect Smith has, in my opinion, done a rather commendable job with several pages devoted to each bothy and some excellent accompanying photographs (best viewed in the e-book version as the printed version is too small to appreciate them). A bothy was originally farm accommodation for itinerant workers; now a bothy is an open shelter usually in a remote location where travellers might have need of four walls and a roof. Follow in Phoebe’s footsteps as she shares hard-won, expert advice on how best to make use of these ‘stone tents’, including packing lists, bothy etiquette, best walking routes in, local legends and more. There’s a lot of useful and interesting info, although the walk-ins tend to focus on the shortest and easiest approaches, thus giving the impression that the purpose of the trip is the bothy itself rather than the start or end point of a more adventurous journey.

Hiding away in one is my mental fantasy on a tough work day, so I love thumbing thru this book for inspiration and smiles. At the beginning of each bothy covered is a map extract, photograph and some interesting reading about the bothy and the area.If you're a gram counter you can easily remove sections of the book to take with you making your own ultra-lightweight guidebook with only the essential sections that you require.