In Praise of Scottish Hiking Cabins

When I was deciding which John Burns book to start reading, I judged a book by its cover. Bothy Tales was an unfamiliar title, and the cover features a dark mountainside and cabin illustrated in blues and blacks, except for the warmly lit cabin windows glowing in orange and yellow. An admittedly flawed approach led me in the right direction this time: this cozy book honors both windblown adventures and mountain shelters (aka bothies) with stories, camaraderie, whisky, and roaring fires. I grew up reading my pop’s outdoorsy humor books by Patrick McManus, and it’s a delight to find another outdoorsy humorist (bonus Scottish accent!) with a good collection of stories. “You head up a hill, over its top and then down the other side. You do this repeatedly until either you die or get to the end of the walk.”

Apparently the maps of bothy locations are light on details; sometimes Mr. Burns makes it to the bothy, but somehow he writes a good tale even when he can’t find the shelter and turns around (events that would make me cranky and unbearable). Like any good storyteller, he’s hiked and climbed with an impressive array of characters, like Charlie, the overly optimistic ice climber and “temperamentally unsuited to employment”, as well as Martin, who’s terrified by dogs of all sizes, including a food-motivated Jack Russell at a pub.

Other crucial components of a good bothy tale include fire and whisky, which meshes with my hiking experiences. “Lighting a bothy fire is a dark art learned only through years of patient pyromania.” Hands-down, the best experience from my year in Scouts was learning to make fires on a backyard camping trip, and building a campfire is the highlight of any camping trip. Mr. Burns slogs across the countryside through variously inclement weather with dreams of bothy fires in his heads, but in one endearing tale, he found a bothy fireplace that was home to a little mouse, so he spent the night without a fire to keep him alive. On those rough nights when the fire won’t catch, whisky is an acceptable backup: “If I can’t get warm from the outside, I may as well get warm from the inside.”

Bothy Tales is a worthy investment of your time and bookshelf real estate. Buy Mr. Burns’ books, he needs more gear.

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