Mountain Bothies Association trustee Juls Stodel has overnighted at every MBA bothy – but she has a word of warning on the unexpected consequences of the hermit lifestyle for one reader seeking solitude in TGO’s Uphill Struggles advice column, supported by Highlander Outdoor. Every month, one reader who writes to Juls with an Uphill Struggle will win an £100 voucher to spend with Highlander.
Dear Juls, I am seeking some peace for a while in the great outdoors. If I want to go off grid somewhere in the UK for a more reclusive hermit-like existence for a short time, hypothetically where would be a good place to go?
Hopeful Hermit, May 2026
Dear Hopeful Hermit, you would not be the first!
Britain has a lengthy and vibrant history of hermits tucked into even the most obscure corners. Those wandering saints that brought Christianity to our islands often chose to end their missions as ascetics. Saint Cuthbert, after many years on Lindisfarne, chose to retire to an island off the island. However, he found he was still pestered by too many people, so he stormed off to an even further island instead.
If remote islands aren’t your style, then the far more popular alternative are caves. Jinty Bell lived most of her life in a cave along Ettrick Bay on Bute. The cave is small, but the ground outside was where the Highland Travellers – Ceàrdannan – camped. Jinty felt more kinship with them than the people of Rothesay so chose to live and raise her son there.
Caves may be tempting, but they also attract the homicidally unhinged. Sawney Bean and his family lived in a cave along the Ayrshire coast in which they murdered and cannibalised over 1000 people. If murdering is your goal, an off-grid lifestyle can really contribute to your success.
If you are searching for a lochside view, there are already two hermits calling Loch Trieg their home. Ken Smith, who has lived there since 1984 in a basic shelter he built himself, and Davey McDonald, a relative newcomer, who has camped at the head of the loch for seventeen years.
While it’s more trouble than it’s worth, a bothy is an option for the most stubborn. Sandy McRory Smith famously lived in the building that became Strathchailleach bothy for 32 years. He had wandered in the wake of tragedy and found an abandoned building in the far north, choosing to make it his home.
A storm in the 90s destroyed the gable end and the MBA made an arrangement whereby they would repair the house as long as a room be kept open for hikers. Sandy was notoriously fickle about holding up his side of the arrangement.
The thing is, those choosing a hermitage to get some peace and distance often end up achieving the opposite. Their novelty creates fame, generating more peering visitors than you’d ever get in an anonymous city centre flat. Sandy has had several books written about him, Ken Smith has written and published his own and been the subject of a documentary. People still make pilgrimages to St. Cuthbert’s final abode on the Farne island. If Jinty Bell had not lived in a cave, we would never have known her name.
It seems a hermit-like existence and peace are two things that, despite expectation, rarely exist together. However odd your current neighbours are, at least they’re not the Beans.
Every month, one reader who writes to Juls with an Uphill Struggle will win an £100 voucher to spend with Highlander Outdoor.
