Glendhu Bothy

At the very head of Glendhu, where a river comes tumbling down a steep glen into the still water, a few stone cottages stand on a green shelf of grass. One of them is Glendhu bothy, kept open for walkers by the Mountain Bothies Association.

There is no road. You walk in along the shore of the loch from Kylestrome, and when you arrive the mountains rise almost straight up on either side, doubled in the water on a calm evening. People once lived here: a walker who called in years ago came to see the house where her great-grandmother was born in 1833.

The bothy has an open fire, though wood is scarce and only driftwood is to be found nearby. It is open to all, on the bothy code, but in the stalking season, from mid August to late October, the estate asks you to phone first.