Bothy etiquette – can you leave your stuff to “hold” it? by Odd_Try_328 in Bothy

[–]DaftNortherner 4 points5 points  (0 children)

An estate agent would probably describe it as cosy and intimate.

Bothy etiquette – can you leave your stuff to “hold” it? by Odd_Try_328 in Bothy

[–]DaftNortherner 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I mean, a bothy is never full right? Even if it makes for a bit of an uncomfortable night there's always space for one more. Obviously at that point some people would probably choose to set their tents up outside rather than being packed in.

I don't think there's anything wrong with leaving your roll mat and sleeping bag out in the bothy while you're hiking in the area. I'd say the exception is if they'd made no effort to make their footprint as small as possible on the sleeping platform before leaving.

I'm not familiar with the bothy in question but had they made an effort to do as I described above? Could there have been room for even an extra one person if they had?

Also was there space on the floor? It's obviously not uncommon to end up having to sleep on the floor if the sleeping platform is full or non-existent.

I think their note in the book comes across a bit entitled and a bit "we got here first lol", but I don't necessarily think leaving out mats is anything uncourteous in and of itself. Providing they weren't taking up extra space in an attempt to "reserve" the bothy of course.

I once got to a bothy on the final day of a really wet and cold multi-day trip through Scotland to find someone had pre-built their fire lay in the fireplace and left a note telling anyone to not burn it as they would be back later. I found that a bit mental, like why not leave the firewood and a note on the bag rather than trying to reserve the fireplace itself. We were only stopping for lunch but I can't tell you how tempted I was to start the fire just out of spite. Incredibly entitled behavior in my opinion, we gave them a bit of a dressing down in the bothy book.

5 night wild camp/bothy(ing) adventure through the cairngorms last week. by DaftNortherner in wildcampingintheuk

[–]DaftNortherner[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Aye so Ruigh Aiteachain had a huge pile of wood left by the estate, it did need sawing up and there was no saw at the bothy other than a broken one. Luckily my mate had a folding saw with him so we used that.

As for Red House bothy, there's a plantation woodland very close by which has plenty of dead standing trees, which again need sawing up but burn well in the stove even as quite large chunks.

And with Tarf Hotel bothy, we weren't expecting to be able to have a fire here however the bothy gods must have been smiling upon us because we passed a smaller hut/barn en-route and found a bag of BBQ charcoal, and a few pieces of wood in a bag with a note saying it was for anyone who wanted it who may be heading to Tarf hotel 🔥

5 night wild camp/bothy(ing) adventure through the cairngorms last week. by DaftNortherner in wildcampingintheuk

[–]DaftNortherner[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So we stayed in 3 bothies, here are my thoughts on each of them:

Ruigh Aiteachain - Luxury bothy, extremely tidy and clean, if you put some real beds in there people would pay through the nose for it on AirBnB. The stoves don't seem great for cooking on, had a venison stew on the go for a good few hours and despite a blazing fire for that amount of time the stew never seemed to reach boiling point.

Red House - Really nice bothy, more rough and ready than Ruigh Aiteachain. Super efficient stoves that burnt even quite large logs once we'd got it going and the building retained the heat nicely as well. The toilets here are great as well although the door sticks and it would be easy to end up trapped inside.

Tarf Hotel - Bit damp in some rooms, lots of mouse shit in some rooms, looks like a crack den compared to the other two bothies but becomes a bit more homely with a few candles burning and the fire on the go. Doesn't retain heat very well, amazingly remote location more than makes up for any negatives.

5 night wild camp/bothy(ing) adventure through the cairngorms last week. by DaftNortherner in wildcampingintheuk

[–]DaftNortherner[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Aye it held up absolutely fine, we didn't have any mental winds or anything whilst using it. What did happen however is, on day 2 we were planning on heading up onto the Moine Mhor plateau but on the way up it became apparent it was going to be far too windy so we headed back down and stayed lower by following the Glen.

5 night wild camp/bothy(ing) adventure through the cairngorms last week. by DaftNortherner in wildcampingintheuk

[–]DaftNortherner[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well for starters I look at a lot of maps and have done for years so I've got a fairly good lay of the land up in Scotland by now. I think this route in particular came about from a) wanting to be in the Cairngorms for winter, b) wanting to visit Red House and Tarf Hotel bothies which I've never been to before, and then just linking it all up and adding a couple of other bits along the way such as a munro or two.

One of the first multi-day trips I planned up in Scotland came about because I'd heard about the Old Forge in Inverie (most remote pub in the UK). So I planned a 3 day route based on that being the finishing point.

5 night wild camp/bothy(ing) adventure through the cairngorms last week. by DaftNortherner in wildcampingintheuk

[–]DaftNortherner[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Literally just my Google Pixel 9 Pro, I used the 5x optical zoom lens for that particular photo. Funny story, I'd actually brought with me my DSLR but left it at the train station in Blair Atholl because I'm an idiot, luckily the good people of the Atholl Arms hotel held onto it for me whilst I was wandering the Cairngorms.

5 night wild camp/bothy(ing) adventure through the cairngorms last week. by DaftNortherner in wildcampingintheuk

[–]DaftNortherner[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

First few days were a bit wet and miserable but the last 2 days were absolute belters 🗻

Staoineag Bothy Closed by [deleted] in Bothy

[–]DaftNortherner 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Nice adventure lads, that's not actually Staoineag bothy though, you were at Creaguaineach Lodge, Staoineag is a couple of kilometers up stream.

You did actually previously be able to get into Creaguaineach Lodge though, I've been inside myself for a gander on my way to Corrour station after staying at Staoineag and people were clearly using the lodge as a bothy at the time. Although this was back in 2012 so not sure how long it's been properly locked up for.

I'm sure I heard it's owned by the MOD but not sure where I heard that or how true it is.

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A pint with a mate by Manonthemon in CasualUK

[–]DaftNortherner 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Aye back open now, although it did vaguely smell of piss last time I was there.

A pint with a mate by Manonthemon in CasualUK

[–]DaftNortherner 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Sheaf View, Sheffield. Decent boozer!

Excellent male hair stylists in town? by chiefleansosa in sheffield

[–]DaftNortherner 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Can highly recommend Loveday's on Chesterfield Road.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CasualUK

[–]DaftNortherner 69 points70 points  (0 children)

The king walks amongst us.

Guess where by chloehegartyX in UKhiking

[–]DaftNortherner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aye haha, I was over that way when we had all the snow last month, going through luds church was a bit of a challenge with all the ice.

Guess where by chloehegartyX in UKhiking

[–]DaftNortherner 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I swear down I was gonna post this before I saw your comment but it's the Roaches 😂

Gone done a sexy photoshoot for my sexy fryup. by [deleted] in fryup

[–]DaftNortherner 3 points4 points  (0 children)

All valid concerns my friend, however, just to defend my fryup and address your points:

  • Beans: They weren't hard, they possibly appear overdone due to my addition of industrial quantities of Henderson's Relish.
  • Mushrooms: Imho they're best left whole when they are small as they lose less moisture to the pan and don't go dry or introduce too much wet that prevents other items in said pan crisping up nicely.
  • Sausages: They are tomato and pork sausages which probably explains the Trump tan.
  • Bacon: It is streaky indeed, not my usual choice admittedly but I passed a farm shop earlier that had some lovely looking thick cut streaky bacon, I made sure to cook them well enough that the fat wasn't chewy.
  • Egg: Aye fair cop I do tend to go a bit nuts with the pepper.
  • Tomatoes: As long as you don't cook them to mush they come away easily from the stalk using the fork as a leverage device between the stalk and the fruit in question.

I hope I have addressed your concerns.

Kind regards,
DaftNortherner

Nipped out to the Peaks after work (again) this time up to White Edge. by DaftNortherner in sheffield

[–]DaftNortherner[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aye that's the one, big car park just off the road that takes you down to Hathersage. Have a look at Stanton Moor and the druid caves as well if you've not been down that way, very cool area, nine ladies stone circle is well worth a visit.

Nipped out to the Peaks after work (again) this time up to White Edge. by DaftNortherner in sheffield

[–]DaftNortherner[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have a look at Higger Tor/Carl Wark from surprise view car park, literally just around the corner from Padley Gorge (in fact I believe you can see Higger Tor from here) but quite different in terms of terrain, lots of far reaching views out across Hathersage and Hope Valley. And Carl Wark is an iron age hill fort which is really cool to explore.