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Open bothies

Open bothies


Postby mikebeattie1 » Thu Jul 08, 2021 12:02 pm

Hi folks for those of you not as confused as to what state the country is in at the moment
But are bothies open or closed
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Re: Open bothies

Postby Scraggygoat » Thu Jul 08, 2021 12:11 pm

MBA maintained bothies are currently officially ‘emergency use only’, where unlocked. It depends on a case by case basis whether estates have locked theirs e.g. Balmoral has, or at least had. The MBA will no doubt update their website when that policy changes.

Where unlocked many well known bothies have been used, against MBA policy throughout last summer, currently are being used and were by some even in lock down.

I haven’t used any, but when passing and they have been empty I have dived in to remove rubbish, and had a quick look at the Bothy books (curiosity killing the cat).
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Re: Open bothies

Postby al78 » Thu Jul 08, 2021 2:00 pm

I think it depends on who is responsible for the bothy. The MBA is requesting people don't use theirs except in an emergency. I was at Corryhully bothy over the May bank holiday weekend and that was open and occupied, so I guess with private bothies, it will depend on who is responsible for it. In any case, if you are planning a bothy trip, it is best to bring a tent in case the bothy is full, that applies regardless of COVID.
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Re: Open bothies

Postby Giant Stoneater » Thu Jul 08, 2021 3:06 pm

Going by some of the bothy books, guests have been frequent, i have got to hold my hand up and i used Faindourain for one night, if more people had appeared then the tent would have went up.
One other person appeared and we had a bothy each, they also had a tent.
Think it is a case of select your bothy with care, pick one not on a tourist route if you decide to use.
Understand the need for keeping them closed as the don't get wiped down.
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Re: Open bothies

Postby LobeyD » Thu Jul 08, 2021 4:02 pm

Giant Stoneater wrote:Going by some of the bothy books, guests have been frequent, i have got to hold my hand up and i used Faindourain for one night, if more people had appeared then the tent would have went up.
One other person appeared and we had a bothy each, they also had a tent.
Think it is a case of select your bothy with care, pick one not on a tourist route if you decide to use.
Understand the need for keeping them closed as the don't get wiped down.


Had a similar experience at Allt Sheicheachan a couple of weeks ago. Hadn't intended to use the bothy and had the tent with me. Sat outside at the bench on a nice evening and decided to kip in the bothy if no else turned up. This was partly down to there being less flat ground than expected. I kept my time indoors to an absolute minimum. Similarly the log book suggested I wasn't, by any means, the first.

I guess we've reached a point where if they are officially open they will be hoaching but a bit of common sense can be applied as long as you're prepared to pitch outside at short notice. The benefits of end of June daylight is that putting up a tent at midnight is feasible if needs must.
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Re: Open bothies

Postby davekeiller » Thu Jul 08, 2021 7:29 pm

Officially all MBA maintained bothies (which is most of them) are closed.
AFAIK there hasn't been any maintenance done on any of them since last March, so even if they're not locked they might not be in a habitable condition.
Info direct from the MBA here https://www.mountainbothies.org.uk/
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Re: Open bothies

Postby Marty_JG » Fri Jul 09, 2021 9:25 am

Giant Stoneater wrote:Understand the need for keeping them closed as the don't get wiped down.


They don't need to be wiped-down though. Covid is highly transmissible via aerosol ("mouth fumes") but surface transmission is negligible-to-nil.

I know we've been told "but Covid can survive for days on low-porous surfaces", but there are some caveats to that science; the amount of virus that was being put onto surfaces was massive, about 10,000,000 infectious virus particles per ml, the sort of load only a laboratory can engineer. What's the human real-life amount? Between 10 and 100 per ml, that means a real-life expectancy of an hour or so, and even so with very low chance of transmission.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30678-2/fulltext
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Re: Open bothies

Postby Essan » Sat Jul 10, 2021 8:29 am

All open bothies should still be closed in accordance with current regulations. In the same way hostels and bunkhouses can only offer limited accomodation at present - uncontrolled use of accomodation and cooking facilities etc by persons from multiple households is not yet permitted.

And given the current spread of covid, it's simple common sense not to spend the night sleeping in a crowded room full of strangers!

Even when restrictions are relaxed to allow bothies to be fully open again, the advice will be to take a tent and sleep in that.
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Re: Open bothies

Postby davekeiller » Sat Jul 10, 2021 11:14 am

@marty_jg I agree that closing bothies will probably do all of nothing to stop spread of covid. However, the MBA are responsible for making the decision as to whether to open them or not.
At the moment, the decision that government guidance says not to open them, so they're not opening them.
I respectfully disagree with that decision but will camp outside at the moment.
To be honest, I usually find that camping outside on the soft grass is more comfortable than inside on a hard surface, but YMMV.
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Re: Open bothies

Postby ScotFinn65 » Sat Jul 10, 2021 12:24 pm

Not trying to start a fire and l always follow the official advice....... However........

What are the chances of catching or spreading Cov-id at a bothy compared to:

Cinemas, gyms, pubs, restaurants, hostels, hotels, airports, trains, not to mention Tescos and Asda....

Surely the rules are not helping at the moment. It is time that the powers-that-be reviewed the priorities. Last year, with less daily cases we were not allowed on the hills and protecting the MR (good idea) but now that is allowed but Bothies aren't. Can anyone make sense of this for me, am l missing something?
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Re: Open bothies

Postby davekeiller » Sat Jul 10, 2021 1:04 pm

@Scottfinn65 the rules have long since ceased to make sense to me.

I can understand the MBA keeping bothies closed on the basis that they haven't been able to do any maintenance for 18 months, so they need to inspect and check they're in a habitable condition. Given the remote locations and the fact the MBA are all volunteers, that would take time.
Unfortunately bothies are not really on the political radar, but the whole tourism and hospitality sector seems to be getting hammered.
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Re: Open bothies

Postby al78 » Sat Jul 10, 2021 1:31 pm

ScotFinn65 wrote:Not trying to start a fire and l always follow the official advice....... However........

What are the chances of catching or spreading Cov-id at a bothy compared to:

Cinemas, gyms, pubs, restaurants, hostels, hotels, airports, trains, not to mention Tescos and Asda....

Surely the rules are not helping at the moment. It is time that the powers-that-be reviewed the priorities. Last year, with less daily cases we were not allowed on the hills and protecting the MR (good idea) but now that is allowed but Bothies aren't. Can anyone make sense of this for me, am l missing something?


Few people care about bothies, so closing them in the name of COVID makes it look like someone is doing something, regardless of whether it makes any difference in reality.

I would hope they will open next year when everyone has been double jabbed. It has been said the vaccine is effective against theese variants, and if true, the threat of overwhelming the NHS has gone, which was the rationale behind the restrictions and repeated lockdowns. At some point we are going to have to deal with the fact that the virus is here to stay and we are going to have to learn to live with it like we have learnt to live with flu, and I for one do not wish to spend the rest of my life being told to live in fear of contact with other people.
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Re: Open bothies

Postby Giant Stoneater » Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:20 pm

al78 wrote:
ScotFinn65 wrote:Not trying to start a fire and l always follow the official advice....... However........

What are the chances of catching or spreading Cov-id at a bothy compared to:

Cinemas, gyms, pubs, restaurants, hostels, hotels, airports, trains, not to mention Tescos and Asda....

Surely the rules are not helping at the moment. It is time that the powers-that-be reviewed the priorities. Last year, with less daily cases we were not allowed on the hills and protecting the MR (good idea) but now that is allowed but Bothies aren't. Can anyone make sense of this for me, am l missing something?


Few people care about bothies, so closing them in the name of COVID makes it look like someone is doing something, regardless of whether it makes any difference in reality.

I would hope they will open next year when everyone has been double jabbed. It has been said the vaccine is effective against theese variants, and if true, the threat of overwhelming the NHS has gone, which was the rationale behind the restrictions and repeated lockdowns. At some point we are going to have to deal with the fact that the virus is here to stay and we are going to have to learn to live with it like we have learnt to live with flu, and I for one do not wish to spend the rest of my life being told to live in fear of contact with other people.


I have been double jabbed and no underlying health problems, i play golf twice a week,cycle about100 miles,walk about 15miles, went to gym and hillwalked at weekends this has been my normal weekly routine for 3 years and now in isolation for 10 days due to contracting Covid, with some things curtailed due to restrictions during this period.
The symptoms i would not wish on anyone, as someone who was prone to the flu every year this has totally floored me, it has felt like the flu only10 times worse, the nurse said people are so shocked at the severity of the symptoms while being double jabbed. Dont forget double jabbed is only 70/80% protection so there is always the chance of catching Covid, whither you get a serious bout of it like me or a mild dose is in the lap of the gods.
What has been talked about is being triple jabbed to get the immunity levels up to 100% if that is possible.
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Re: Open bothies

Postby Sunset tripper » Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:28 pm

While 60,000 people, apparantly legally, were slevering all over each other at Wembley the other night I don't think anyone is in the slightest bit interested in what happens at bothies.

Though an unscientific study, I've passed quite a few bothies since the lockdown started. The one I noticed was in Glen Callater, though still open ie unlocked, it was plastered in Covid notices. Others just seemed as normal. Barrisdale had a notice saying open for the toilet and water point.

If practically all restrictions are soon removed which seems to be the present plan, bothies will presumably open officially again.

In reality at the present moment and if in a remote location beside a bothy faced with the imminent threat of the midgie, or the remote threat of covid - there will only be one deciding factor. :D
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Re: Open bothies

Postby Jon and Jen » Sat Jul 10, 2021 4:08 pm

The rules make absolutely no sense to me either but rarely do most modern government policies. I still camp out in the tent to adhere to the requirements and will continue to until told otherwise. Sucks though.
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