by DopeyLoser » Fri Jul 27, 2018 6:07 pm
Thanks for the thoughts folks. Very interesting to me that there are indeed some rational reasons for going to a bothy to camp!
A few comments:
Re water (it's unlikely to be "springawater" as in cool clean water gushing from a spring). Yes there will likely be water near a bothy but ... this is Scotland. Is there a shortage of burns? It's not the Sahara desert where oases are in short supply. Also, I would not place special faith in the water near a bothy. Keep in mind the reason a toilet was added at Corrour was the vast number of jobbies that people were depositing all around it, making for potential contamination of water supply. And a sheep or deer can expire in a burn 50m above a bothy same as anywhere else.
Re social aspect: some of the responses suggest bothy is good to enjoy others' company, then be able to retire to own tent to sleep. Fair enough, as long as we all remember that just because we want to socialise doesn't mean others do. Would a camper be happy if a bothy-dweller was to unzip the door of their tent and climb inside for a wee chat? I'm joking, of course, or am I. Interesting though: a bothy is seen as semi-public space whereas a tent is seen as private space. Not saying it should be otherwise, just sayin...
I realised that way back in days of yore I too had camped a couple of times outside bothies. Once when I joined some scouts doing the Lairig Ghru, and Corrour happened to be the destination for one night. Didn't even look in the bothy (in fact the concept of sleeping in a bothy was then unknown to me) but just camped along with all the others nearby. There was no reason to be at Corrour except that was the spot on the map that was picked as the night's destination.
Another couple of times I think we camped near a bothy during DoE or equivalent 'expeditions'. Maybe there was more reason to pick a bothy as a camping destination then, since our supervisor would stay at the bothy and 'observe' while we camped.
Right. I've got that question out of my system now. Thanks again.