A few months back I was sent a link to a video on Youtube, of a trip to a secret bothy, somewhere on the West Coast of Scotland. It looked fantastic, an amazing and atmospheric stone hut hanging on the edge of a cliff, with stunning views out to sea. The video piqued my curiosity, and I began to wonder where it was. Around the same time, another video came out of the same bothy. Both were recorded by two guys travelling together, and they gave little away, other than it was somewhere on the west coast. Youtube’s algorith being what it is, I was then recommended another video of a trip to the same bothy. In this one, the man in the video was travelling by train, and again, he was fairly vague about the location.
From these videos I was able to deduce a few points.
- The bothy was on the coast, on a rocky feature which had a small beach on either side, and a long, smooth grassy slope leading down to the larger of the two.
- It was within walking distance of a road and the West Highland Railway line (I guessed a maximum walk of around 8-10 miles).
- From the position of the sun in the video, the beach was south facing.
Point 2 narrowed this down to somewhere in the vicinity of Oban, which I quickly discounted, Kyle of Lochalsh, or Mallaig. Kyle of Lochalsh didn’t look promising either, and this left the Mallaig line, which has a few stations in the vicinity of the coast, and I had soon identified a likely spot. Moving from the OS map to Google Earth I was able to confirm my suspicions.
Due to work and other commitments I had to sit on this one for a while, but in early June I finally managed to find a couple of days to visit this bothy. Ideally I’d have liked to have stayed in the area longer, as it’s around a 6 hour train journey to get there, but things being as they are I was glad to get the chance to spend just one night here.
As usual, I’ve made my usual video diary with a combination of drone and camera footage, and I’ve posted it below. It received a bit of criticism from some in the bothy community, for a variety of reasons. These range from “all but giving away the grid reference” to gripes that the bothy is no longer secret and everyone knows it anyway. Shrodinger’s Bothy…
Apparently the only way that you are allowed to learn of the existence of a non-MBA bothy is around a camp fire, from a bearded guru, under a full moon, over a tin mug of 30 year old Laphroig.
Should you care to look online you will find detailed descriptions of the bothy, route maps to it, maps and photos, even its name and history. By and large I’ve posted the same information which I used to find the bothy. In summary, I haven’t posted the grid reference, just the general area. I haven’t posted the route online. I haven’t named the bothy either. If you want to visit it, feel free to do your own digging and plan your own route. It can be busy (as I found out), but there are nice spots to camp nearby if it is full. I had to carry a bag of other people’s rubbish out, so do “Tak’ it Hame”, and please don’t leave biscuits, unless you like sleeping with mice running around you…
The Airdrie Rambler 
Brilliant pieces of deduction finding that – you must be well chuffed. Looks a bit rough walking for me though – I found it hard enough with a bumbag just going up to Bearnais the other week and realised I’d never take a big pack up there!
I do like a wee map reading challenge. The thing that intrigued me was that they said the were on the west coast, but the beach was facing towards the general direction of the sun, which I was pretty sure was south. It is surprising how many beaches face south on that coast though!
Yeah I suppose many will with all the coastal indentations. It looked pretty tricky to get to. Have you been to the secret howff at Slugain? I’d love to find that. I think I know where it is but haven’t been to have a look if I’m right or not yet.
I haven’t. My interest has been piqued! I’m off to play with maps now… 🤣