[Closed] Bothie mountain biking

Do a search for The Welsh Ride Thing or Bivvying (on this site)

Carry a tent or a bivvy bag in case the bothy is full - this does happen, especially the busier ones closer to roads.

Always assume that the trail is going to be waterlogged and progress will be slow (especially if your bike is quite heavily laden).

Check out the Mountain Bothy Association's website for a decent map of the ones under their control.

Like was said above, don't rely on getting in. The ones you can bike to are also the more popular ones, usually. Expect to walk quite a bit if you're going to the more remote ones, ie in the far north. Not so many of the tracks are rideable.

Having said all that, it can still be great fun. Just remember the midges in summer!

Get a box of wine, ditch the box, burn the bag when you've finished.
Go somewhere with a wood source or where there's a good chance some Weegies will have dragged in half a bunker full of coal.
In which case be prepared not to get any sleep - take a tent.
Everything else is just lightweight camping.

Dont forget to lurk on the UK bothies website to get a flavour for some of the 'characters' you might run in to 😉

These comments about not getting in amaze me. I'm a hardcore bothier, I've been to nearly every MBA bothy and quite a lot of 'secrets', and not once have I had a problem getting in. Is this a Welsh problem or something? - because I've never come across it in Scotland.

Theoretically of course you could turn up at a bothy 'full' of pished fishermen from Glasgow - you can still get in, but you'll be part of the party, and you'll be using Jocks buttocks as a pillow.

See Ukbothies - I'm more at home there than here. They'll freely advise on MBa bothies, and hopefully keep their mouths shut regarding non-MBA ones 😀

I've seen Sourlies full, and heard of it being monopolised by a German scouting group before that (cue cliched comments about towels and deckchairs etc etc). They didn't do their reputation any favours by crapping in the stream about 100m upstream of the bothy :whyisn'ttherea'bowk'smiley?:

Strathcailleach was technically full when I was there, in as much as the latecomers would have had to sleep on the slightly cramped kitchen floor.

Kinbreak was pretty sociable when I got there, but only because of the TGO challenge passing through at the time. Again, you could easily have squeezed in downstairs if you didn't mind sleeping in what was best described as a 'byre'

Seems I'm just a people magnet Waderider! 8)

Never had a problem in any of the Welsh Bothies here, secret or MBA.

Well theres a miserable sod that frequents nant rhys, he seems to think he owns it and gets very shouty if you disturb him of a morning after he's been getting shedded into the wee small hours(making lots of noise himself).

13thfloormonk, you're obviously not made of the same stuff as I am, for example at Sourlies I would have reclaimed territory by moving their stuff out of the way.

Strathcailleach kitchen floor was until not long ago the prime spot to doss in the bothy - the sleeping platform in the west room is a recent addition. You could fit at least ten folk in the bothy by my reckoning. Beyond that, intimacy is good for staying warm, and capacity rises to the volume of the bothy divided by the average volume of a bothier 😆

TGO challenge - I concede, best to avoid the hill when that sort are about. Dull. And I am a hillwalker too. I wear my prejudices on my chest. Although Kinbreak is near a starting point, maybe explaining the busyness, they soon spread out to infest the whole of the Highlands. Lets pray for bad weather that week this year.

And the guy that frequents nant rhys, give him a good lecture on bothy etiquette, and tell him to work harder if he wants his own private holiday home in the countryside!

Hutchie Hut was full last time I stayed there (although I do concede it's tiny!), it was mid week and in January. On another trip we camped rather than bunking with the residents of Faindouran.

I amend my above post further. Hutchie Hut was also full last time I was there, and swimming with water from all the folk tramping in and out.

Can I amend my first post on this thread to "bothies are rarely full, and no-one has the right to turn you away, but research which ones are really small and/or busy so you know what your accommodation chances are."

Thanks!

Haha, point taken WR, except I've never approached a bothy without my tent in the rucsac, so it never really seems worth the strife to make space.

My mate was dead keen to try and wedge himself in amongst the sleeping bodies in Sourlies, despite the fact it was a beautiful night and we had a three person tent...

That's one of the things I love about bothying, turning up and not knowing what's going to happen...met all sorts of weirdos 😀