Book Review

by Fred Nind

The Book of the Bothy

Cicerone, pp 240, ISBN 978 1 85284 756 2 by Phoebe Smith: £12.95

Mountain Bothies - celebrating 50 years of the MBA

Mountain Bothies Association, pp 175 compiled by N Stewart, A Mayhew, D Robertson, J Mitchell and P Kin: £10 from the MBA.

Books about bothies are just like buses: you wait 50 years and then two of them come along at the same time. But these are two books going very different places.

After an introduction to the MBA and the world of bothying with a good description of bothy etiquette, The Book of the Bothy becomes a very personal account of just 26 of the 100 plus bothies in the care of the MBA. The book takes a standard approach with each entry including an access map, a description of the inside and outside and a facsimile reproduction of what the author wrote in her journal or the bothy book when there. There are also brief accounts of the history of each bothy and notes on wildlife that can be seen nearby. The descriptions are copiously illustrated and usually include a picture of the author either inside, outside or on the approach. Visiting each bothy seems to be an end in itself with little mention of nearby hills to climb or through routes to other bothies. Its purpose seems to be to attract more visitors to these 'simple shelters in remote locations' in the expectation that with more eyes watching them they are less likely to be vandalised. I hope Phoebe is right.

Mountain Bothies - celebrating 50 years of the MBA - is an altogether meatier read. The mixture of authors gives a refreshing variety of style. Interspersed with pictures from past and recent renovations are many delightful pencil sketches. The editors have eschewed a chronological history of each bothy coming into their care and although most of them seem to get a mention it is for a variety of reasons. With some this is a detailed history of previous inhabitants going back centuries. For others it is a hair-raising description of repair work before the dreaded "elf and safety" was even invented. The last section (Stone Tents and Smoky Fires) includes a range of accounts of visits to bothies and the experiences their authors have had there.

My guess is that the majority of AAC(UK) members have visited or used MBA bothies at some time or other and in a few cases the shelter that they have provided will have been life-saving. We owe an enormous thank you to the hundreds of MBA members who have "built and bodged" bothies in some of the most remote and inhospitable parts of the UK. Buy their 50th anniversary book and support their work and give yourself an entertaining read into the bargain.

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