UKH

A few weeks back I had a somewhat strange and worrying experience in a bothy, and just thought I'd share it.

Me and a friend had arrived at a bothy at about 9:30pm after a day on the Rhinogs. On the sleeping floor upstairs were rucksacks, four mats and sleeping bags. Great, we though; some company.

Eventually we went to sleep, and heard the group return at about 1am. We couldn't hear clearly though the floor, but they realised they had company and started to argue amongst themselves. One person was clearly trying to quieten the argument but it went on some time and concerned our presence there.

Through this I was getting quite worried, and readying myself for an argument (or worse!) but eventually the voices subsided and they went to bed too. Two of them slept in our room, and two next door.

In the morning they were extremely un-talkative which struck me as unusual for outdoor people. Their group consisted of a man of about 45, a younger guy, and two teenage boys, and no mention was made about their argument (I reckon they thought we slept through it).

Anyway, anyone had any similar experiences? Maybe the two younger boys were scared by us thinking we made be crazed murderers but then why use a bothy were others may be, and why not all sleep in the same room? Where had they been at stupid o' clock in the night in the middle of a forest?

Very strange anyway.

In reply to Touching Centauri:
Maybe the two younger boys were scared by us thinking we made be crazed murderers ....... Where had they been at stupid o' clock in the night in the middle of a forest?


Clealy you have it all wrong! You gave the answer in your description but you just didn't realise it. They had been out in the midle of the forest committing murders and were angry when they returned and found some potential witnesses to their late night activities. They didn't talk to you as they didn't want you to be able to recognise their voices (i suspect they were all women but they were disguised as men but you didn't notice that).

All in all I think you are very lucky to be alive but I wouldn't risk going back there without an armed escort.

In reply to 9WS9c3jps92HFTEp: I once heard a good story about a bothy,

2 blokes (one of them ran a navigation course which is how i knew him) were bothying (?) up the west coast of scotland and one night in a very remote bothy they found that there was a man already there, he would not say a word to them, merely nodding when they said hello. the silence continued all evening but as the strange bloke started to get ready for bed he pulled a hand gun out of his bag and showed it to my friends before placing it under his pillow!

my friend and his walking partner were pretty freaked by this. he said it looked like a ww2 revolver so not sure if it worked or was even loaded.

In reply to thebigdon: Now that would be scary!

In reply to Touching Centauri:

Was up around Honister with a mate a couple of years ago with the intention of staying out at Warnscale Head bothy.

When we arrived, there was already a bloke in there, a young lad, he said he'd been up there for a week (!) just hanging out and writing poetry!

Anyway, he seemed totally wired and pretty put out that we'd arrive to stay at the bothy. So he said he'd been up there too long anyway, and that he was going to leave. We said cheerio to him and thought nothing more of it.

About an hour later, having been doing a bit of cooking in the bothy, we went outside and there he was, staring back down at the place from about 100 yards up towards the quarries!

Needless to say, we were a bit concerned by this, but decided to pay no attention as he had every right to be there. About an hour later a group of four more turned up. At this point, the bloke turned around and left, after having been staring down at us for a full two hours. What a bloody wierdo! He'd felt very menacing, like his eyes were really burning into us. Even though there were two of us already, I was well pleased to have company in the bothy that night!

In reply to Touching Centauri:

THey were arguing over who would have to sleep in the room with the two weirdos (you and your mate) who had arrived. They were freaked out by you!

In reply to Touching Centauri:


A couple of years ago I stayed in the Strathen bothy up in the North-West highlands, just east of Sandwood Bay. The Bothy book detailed a very strange episode a couple of years ago with a squatter who set up home and was eventually evicted after months of bizarreness... Did anyone meet this guy?

In reply to steveP: We had a family outing to the Hutchinson Memorial hut for a night last February. Talking to an old local, he said that he’d met a German lady, at the start of the winter, who planned to live in the hut over winter. The hut has no fireplace, must be at least 10Km from the nearest Cairngorm road and at an altitude of about 700m, making it an odd choice of venue to stay the winter. Her plan didn’t last very long.

In reply to Billy the fish:

Reminds me of the US Air Force personnel who were tasked to guard the wreckage of the F-15's that crashed on Ben Macdui. They didn't last too long either...

In reply to steveP: There is a chapter in one of Mike Cawthorne's books that details the whole story. Very interesting.

In reply to Touching Centauri:

Cheers. From my memory of reading the bothy book, it sounded like the guy was mentally ill. I suppose bothies are a fairly remote sink that people can wind up in when the whole state social safety net thing doesn't work...

In reply to Touching Centauri: Possibly a small group from a kids care company?

We ran into two guys with a teenage lad at the Dulyn bothy.

I did some work for a similar outfit in the lakes about 10 years ago.

In reply to Queequeg:

maybe he'd just left a bit of his soul in the place and the child in him couldn't let go quickly

In reply to Touching Centauri:

Maybe they'd booked on expedia and were a bit miffed to find their "exclusive Highlands chalet" invaded by you lot.