Beginner's Guide to Scottish Bothies
Ask anyone who's used one and they'll usually tell you the same thing: a bothy is one of the best-kept secrets of British hillwalking, and also one of the easiest things to get wrong as a newcomer. These simple, unlocked shelters scattered across remote parts of Scotland offer free refuge from the weather with no booking and no fee — but that freedom comes with an unwritten (and, as it happens, actually written-down) code of conduct that keeps the system working. This guide covers what a bothy is, who looks after them, and how to behave if you use one, without pointing you toward specific locations.
What a bothy actually is
A bothy is a basic shelter — usually a converted old farmhouse, shepherd's cottage or similar small stone building — left unlocked and free for anyone to use. Don't expect facilities: most have no electricity, no running water, and no toilet beyond a spade and a patch of ground well away from the building. What they offer is a solid roof, four walls, and shelter from the weather in places where that can matter a great deal — many are in genuinely remote upland or glen locations, often a significant walk from the nearest road.
Bothies aren't hotels or hostels with staff. There's no booking system, no check-in, and generally no guarantee of space — if a bothy is already occupied when you arrive, you don't get priority over whoever got there first, and turning up expecting exclusive use of a public shelter is a common beginner mistake.
Who looks after them
Most maintained bothies in Scotland are looked after by the Mountain Bothies Association (MBA), a volunteer organisation that maintains around a hundred shelters across Scotland (with a smaller number elsewhere in the UK) under agreements with the landowners, who continue to own the buildings and land. The MBA doesn't own the bothies itself — it maintains them through volunteer work parties who carry in materials, repair roofs, rebuild fireplaces and generally keep these remote buildings usable, entirely unpaid and largely unseen by the people who benefit from the work. The MBA relies on membership and donations to fund this, so joining or donating is a genuine way to support the network if you use bothies or simply value that they exist.
The Bothy Code
The MBA publishes a short code of conduct — usually referred to as the Bothy Code — that every visitor is expected to follow. The principles are straightforward common sense, but worth spelling out because they're what makes the whole unlocked, unstaffed system work:
- No one has exclusive use. Bothies are shared shelters — if you arrive and it's already occupied, you're expected to get along with whoever's there, not treat it as unavailable to you or push others out. Large groups (more than about six) are discouraged from using bothies at all, since they can displace individual walkers who may need the shelter more urgently.
- Leave it clean and tidy. Take out anything you bring in that won't burn, and leave dry kindling behind for the next people through, if you're able to.
- Deal with waste properly. Where there's no toilet, bury human waste well away from the bothy and any water supply, using a spade if one is provided, and never use the immediate vicinity of the building as a toilet.
- Respect fire safety. Make sure any fire is properly out before you leave — bothy fires and stoves are a real, recurring risk to buildings that took real volunteer effort to restore.
- Don't damage or deface the building. No graffiti, no vandalism — and if damage happens accidentally, it's good practice to let the MBA know so it can be repaired.
- Bring your own fuel. Don't assume there'll be firewood or coal at the bothy, and never strip wood from fences, gates or estate structures to burn — carry in what you need.
- Sign the bothy log book. Most bothies keep one; recording your visit helps the MBA understand usage and is also a nice piece of tradition in its own right.
A note on locations
Deliberately, this guide doesn't list or point toward specific bothies. Many in the network rely partly on not being too widely publicised or easy to stumble across — overuse from increased footfall is a genuine, recognised threat to the bothy system, and the MBA itself is often careful about how locations are shared. If you want to find and use bothies responsibly, the right approach is to go through the Mountain Bothies Association's own resources, which explain access with the context and etiquette expectations attached, rather than a generic online list stripped of that context.
Getting started responsibly
If you're new to bothying, the sensible approach is to treat your first visit as you would any remote wild camping trip: carry full kit as if the bothy might be full, occupied, or not there at all (a bothy is a bonus, never a guarantee), tell someone your route and expected return, and go in with the Bothy Code already understood rather than learned on arrival. Support the Mountain Bothies Association if you can — through membership, a donation, or joining a maintenance work party — since the entire system depends on volunteer goodwill rather than any statutory funding, and every walker who benefits from a dry night in a bothy is benefiting from that unpaid work.