bothy bliss

It was time for my monthly bivvy. Now that we are back to GMT, it gets dark around 5.30 up here and I don't really want to be lying down to sleep that early...so I had an idea. I would walk in to a bothy, enjoy a few hours of peace and quiet and then go outside to sleep when I felt tired. I knew just the right place to go, too, because I have been looking over at Queensberry recently and thinking that I haven't been up that hill for over two years, which is way too long.

This is Burleywhag bothy and it's about 3 miles up a (sometimes rather wet) track from the road. For those of you outside the UK, a bothy is a simple dwelling, left open for the use of walkers. You can sleep there but you have to bring everything in  - food, water, fuel, sleeping bag. You don't need to book, but theres always a risk  that you might have to share the bothy with lots of other folk. However, that can be quite nice, if they're sociable and don't snore too loudly :-). The bothies are maintained by the Mountain Bothy Association of which D is a member.

I arrived at Burleywhag just as the sun was setting and the moon rising on a glorious but chilly Sunday evening. I'd met a couple of men on the path who had walked to Burleywhag that afternoon and said there was plenty of coal if I wanted a fire. I did.

I had the bothy to myself. It got dark, I sat very close to the fire, ate my sandwiches, read my book and write my diary. The hours passed very slowly (and quietly, except for a mouse nibbling in some dark corner). At about 10pm I went out to bivvy in the front 'garden' of the bothy. I was wearing all my clothes, a hat and hood and it was just about warm enough...

Sometime in the early hours I was woken by what felt like a rat running over me! The moon had set and the stars were absolutely amazing! I wasn't worried by the rat but I thought I'd move into the bothy for a few more hours' undisturbed kip, ignoring the "Scream" mask which someone had hung up over my bed...