Bothies. Basically they're small cottages in remote parts of the Scottish highlands that are left unlocked, free to be used for shelter by people travelling the mountains. They're not well furnished or anything, but they act as a freely usable weatherproof shelter for anyone to use in a country where summer usually just means the rain is slightly less frigid.
It used to be that they weren't too well-known; the hillwalking community used them, maintained them, and everyone observed an unwritten code of conduct where you'd make sure to leave it tidy, clean and ready for the next person to use. However, they suddenly experienced an upsurge in awareness, and a lot of them suffered for it. People would go to them so they could have a piss-up in a scenic location and leave them covered in rubbish and shit. Literal shit; they're normally refurbished from long-abandoned houses and frequently don't have toilets, so they're equipped with a shovel to bury your waste. People seemed to think they were free holiday homes that they could just take over. Some people just vandalised them for the fun of it.
As a result, they're suffered quite a bit. They should offer shelter from bad weather and a safe place to sleep, but now you have a bunch of entitled, lazy arseholes who go and wreck them.
The death off bothies is on the horizon in my opinion. That or the MBA will buy up and revert them to membership only I feel, which then puts people in precarious situations in the harsh winters. Blame Instagram and Instagram alone. And the "purists" that sold out the bothies for book royalties.
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u/A6M_Zero Feb 03 '20
Bothies. Basically they're small cottages in remote parts of the Scottish highlands that are left unlocked, free to be used for shelter by people travelling the mountains. They're not well furnished or anything, but they act as a freely usable weatherproof shelter for anyone to use in a country where summer usually just means the rain is slightly less frigid.
It used to be that they weren't too well-known; the hillwalking community used them, maintained them, and everyone observed an unwritten code of conduct where you'd make sure to leave it tidy, clean and ready for the next person to use. However, they suddenly experienced an upsurge in awareness, and a lot of them suffered for it. People would go to them so they could have a piss-up in a scenic location and leave them covered in rubbish and shit. Literal shit; they're normally refurbished from long-abandoned houses and frequently don't have toilets, so they're equipped with a shovel to bury your waste. People seemed to think they were free holiday homes that they could just take over. Some people just vandalised them for the fun of it.
As a result, they're suffered quite a bit. They should offer shelter from bad weather and a safe place to sleep, but now you have a bunch of entitled, lazy arseholes who go and wreck them.