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I guess my new hillwalking project 'Not even a bothy' started in December 2019 when I was forced to sleep through a snowstorm in the Upper Lunch Hut on the Cateran Trail (here seen in the distance on a more recent visit).
'Not even a bothy' is any hut that isn't up to the standards of bothies, in particular, no stove, leaky walls, broken windows, no furniture, that kind of thing. Like this thing here. It's a countermovement to the increasing refinement of hill bothies in Scotland.
Because, really nobody needs book shelves and sleeping platforms. What a shelter needs is a roof, and four walls, and perhaps a door of some kind, but even those standards are to some extent debatable. Here another example, with a bare concrete floor and not much else.
The Secret Howff is in that category of course, and the shelter on Jock's Road, but those are the celebrities. I'm really after the obscure huts and howffs, the forgotten shelters. For example, the Ponyman's Hut in Glen Avon which I haven't visited yet. It looks like a prime example of Not Even A Bothy. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6811069
An alternative name for 'Not even a bothy' could also be 'A perfectly fine bothy', because that's what these huts are, perfectly fine for a few hours of rest, or a quiet night. Here perhaps an extreme example, just a pile of stones on a hill, basically, June 2019:
One problem with these shelters is that they are largely undocumented. Sometimes you find a note in someone's blog, sometimes it's really just a little square on a map. Sometimes you get there and it's just four walls with nettles inside.
Often you get there and it's an Estate bothy that is locked. Mostly they are off the beaten track. And sometimes you find some kind of hidden paradise, still just a square on the map, but open and dry.
A good day for the 'Not even a bothy' project. I finally managed to sleep in the aforementioned Upper Lunch Hut with my friend, the basic hut afficionado Lord Bunny. Here a picture of him lounging this morning.
And we found another one, which is very likely to be filled with sheep residuals. This might not even be a not even a bothy. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2858476
@aleks
Yes but it has doodahs*
*in the distant past when I still spoke to the MBA, there was a long string of correspondence about the decorations on the gable ends which they called doodahs.
@Fasgadh Yes, those are amazing. This really should be a listed building.