A work party from volunteer organisation the Mountain Bothies Association (MBA) is scheduled to hit Shenavall between 30 April and 6 May. During this time the bothy will be out of action for walkers and climbers.

'Of course all Shenavall lovers are all welcome to come and join the fun' says bothy caretaker Peter Aikman, in a Hilltalk forum post. The MBA would welcome more volunteer workers - see their website for details. The main upstairs sleeping room will be available to any workers who don't want to camp. And a cook will be in attendance, says Peter.

The MBA have quite ambitious plans: to encase the new stairway to comply with fire regs; take down the partition wall between the "lounge" and "entrance hall" to make a bigger main room; open up the third downstairs room which has been locked; build a sleeping platform there and transform the (unsafe) hole in the ceiling into a locked hatch; install a couple of "escape" windows (those fire regs again); sweep the chimney; do some guttering and drainage and pull down the annexe. This work is urgently required in a heavily used bothy that is beginning to look tatty, say the MBA.

The installation of a stove is on the list for the longer term future.