For some strange reason this is the first time I’ve read one of John D Burn’s books. Back in the good old days of internet forums, before the advent of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, I recall crossing paths with John, where I always found his contributions regarding hillwalking in Scotland to be knowledgeable and humorous. Sadly all those platforms, like Outdoors Magic, TGO and LFTO, became quieter and obsolete, and try as I might I’m unable to find record of those now long forgotten conversations. Technology has outpaced our ability to keep up, and that’s a topic that John touches on in his 2019 book Bothy Tales – Footsteps in the Scottish Hills, where he casts his mind back over a lifetime of hiking and bothying, which I recently picked up in a bookshop, and which has been my first read of 2022.
It’s a witty anthology of stories, mostly (apparently) based on John’s many hours tramping the hills, while others are perhaps the product of an over-active imagination combined with a post whisky-tinged nap at the bothy fire after a long day on the hills. Consisting of 23 short stories, it’s a light and easy read which I devoured quickly, but that’s not to say there’s no meat to the bones. There are recurring characters who we quickly come to know, and others who help set the stage and are immediately recognisable, for we’ve all encountered them somewhere along the way: the obsessive list ticker or the bothy blawhard who has been there and done it all. In fact a chapter is devoted to cataloguing such characters, and I think I’ve met them all.
It’s not all wit though, and it’s balanced with depth and affection, and indeed as I’m now of an age where my big hill days are all behind me, perhaps it is these sections which connect with me the most. John stirs memories of places I’ve been and situations I have encountered and while walking through John’s recollections I have also walked through my own.
I stand for a long time on the summit of this remote peak. Part of me is trying to gain some rational understanding of the distances I am perceiving, but I am half conscious of another process within me. It is as if just as I look at the landscape it too sees me. The young man in a cagoule, with a woollen hat and an ice axe, is also part of the landscape.
Bothy Tales – Footsteps in the Scottish Hills is published by Vertebrate Publishing and is available on Amazon, at Waterstones and in some outdoors shops.
The Airdrie Rambler 