by Dave Hewitt » Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:36 pm
Fasgadh - meaning shelter, I think - was a fantastic place, much missed. There's probably no close comparison in terms of current options when staying in the Highlands. It tended to be styled as an independent hostel, but was more like a bothy with facilities. I stayed there quite a few times from the mid-80s to the early 90s, and always enjoyed it. There was a main building but also a rather ramshackle collection of sheds and caravans with bunks fitted - I'm not sure how many it slept in all, but it felt like quite a lot. The main building had a communal room with an open fire, and of course there were cooking facilities too.
Perhaps the most striking thing was simply that it was always open, even if - as was quite often the case - Nancy wasn't there. You were trusted to behave yourself and to leave the fee in a box next to the visitors' book, and the money box wasn't chained up or anything - everything was on trust, good oldfashioned hospitality. The obvious comparison for those active in the hills at the time was with Gerry Howkins' hostel at Craig (happily still in existence and now run by his son after Gerry's death in 2015), and there were indeed considerable similarities although the main difference, as far as I and a fair few others were concerned, was that Nancy wasn't difficult in the way that Gerry could be. I know of several people - including regulars - who stopped going to Gerry's because it felt a bit too random in terms of his behaviour, but I don't know of anyone who stopped going to Nancy's. Both places were tremendous ports in a storm however, and both were well used.
I'm not exactly sure when Nancy died and Fasgadh closed, but I think she died around 1994 or 1995 and although the place struggled on for a wee while courtesy of family members it fairly soon closed and now very little sign of it remains - the actual house is there but the outbuildings have gone and it's no longer a hostel. These were pre-internet days of course, and also - certainly back in the mid-1980s - pre-guidebook days in terms of the Munros. People who stayed at Fasgadh tended to be quietly competent and much more capable of planning their own routes and hill outings than often now seems to be the case, and (in the rosy glow of happy retrospection) the hill world felt better for it.
I've never been the greatest fan of bothy singalongs late into the night, but my main abiding and happy memory of staying at Nancy's was of a snowy weekend in (I think) the winter of 1990-91 when Dave MacFadzean and Jack Foley were in residence, both very interesting characters, and at some stage after a long hill day Dave MacF sang Shoals of Herring very beautifully.
There were other great visits and great nights too. Everyone I've ever met who spent time there speaks fondly of the place, and of Nancy herself. I believe, for example, that the poster known as Fasgadh on this forum takes his name from similar happy memories of Nancy's hostel.