It’s been a busy year for the MBA.
The Mountain Bothies Association – the charity that maintains more than 100 bothies across the UK, although it owns only one – has published its Annual Review, and it’s been a busy year for them with several notable achievements.
In 2017, the MBA added three new shelters:

  • Abyssinia in Glen Kinglas, Argyll and Bute. More than 50 volunteers worked over five work parties to bring the building into bothy use.
  • Flittingford in Northumberland. This bothy in Kielder Forest was formerly a ruined shepherd’s hut. It’s now one of the MBA’s smallest bothies, with room for just three people.
  • Cae Amos in Snowdonia. Cae Amos opened in May. It had previously been run by the Leeds Mountaineering Club since 1967. It’s thought to be the largest bothy complex in Wales – Cae Amos includes a barn at each end, in addition to the main building.

The MBA also recently took on management responsibility for Great Lingy Hut in the Lake District, and resumed responsibility for maintaining Will’s Bothy (Leyburnsfoot), Scottish Borders.
“The bothy was first renovated by the Friends of Will’s Bothy in conjunction with the MBA in 1994,” said an MBA spokesperson. “Our tenure of the building subsequently lapsed, but has been taken up again at the behest of Forest Enterprise Scotland, who own the building.
“The bothy, also known as Leburnsfoot, is a memorial to the hill runner and climber Will Ramsbotham, who died whilst climbing in North Wales in 1993. The Ramsbotham family remain very interested in the bothy and are delighted by the renewal of MBA involvement.”
The report also notes that the MBA ran 124 work parties at more than 60 different bothies. In addition to those advertised or notified work parties, many more days were contributed by the team of Maintenance Organisers, or simply routine repairs.
“This is only possible because of the support we receive from the owners of the buildings who allow us to maintain them as open shelters,” said an MBA spokesperson, “and the efforts of our members involved in both maintenance activity and in running the Association. We thank them all.”
The MBA also launched a new website, significantly improving the accessibility of information on bothies and how to responsibly use them.
Header image: Will’s Bothy, courtesy of the MBA
mountainbothies.org.uk