I took my primus stove for a walk last Sunday, the weather forecast having dramatically changed for the worse and ruling out the high hills for anyone who didn’t fancy trying to surf a blizzard.  A drove through Drumnadrochit and parked near the chambered cairn at Corrimony and headed off for the little bothy nestled in the RSPB reserve.  I realised I hadn’t been there for twenty years so I didn’t know if the bothy was still standing.

As soon as I broke out of the forestry an icy wind brought tears to my eyes, I don’t think I’ve cried that much since Lassie died.  The little bothy was still standing in defiance of the elements.  Inside it was rather luxuriously furnished with a sofa and armchairs.  I have reservations about such furnishing in bothies since the last time I sat on a  soft sofa in a bothy I walked out with a number of the resident fleas as passengers.  The little photo makes it look very cosy although I have to point it was only barely above freezing as I brewed up my soup and hot chocolate (Not in the same pan).

There is now a community wind farm under construction there and the turbines dominate the sky line.  I can’t decide how I feel about these things.  I’m all for greener energy but the wilderness of the RSPB sanctuary will never quite be the same and the new road that has been but to construct and maintain the farm is a scar that will never heal.  Perhaps this is just the price we have to pay for our limitless thirst for energy.

I don’t think may folk sleep in the bothy, especially when the wind howls about the place and carries with it the threat of snow.  The bothy was well supplied with fuel and would be a comfortable place to stay, well worth a visit, especially if you like birds and can ignore the wind farm.