A bothy is an unlocked building openly accessible by all who should need it.  There are 97 Bothys in Scotland and today they are maintained by The Mountain Bothy Charity; the term is a legal term and the way they are used protected by Scots Law.

Scotland’s terrain is harsh and expansive, with many estates stretching across isolated glens and moorlands. Keeping workers safe meant building these shelters in strategic locations — near deer forests, along drove roads, or at remote lochans, or more simply just high up a mountain side. 

A Bothy is a non-moveable type of Shepards Hut;  The Bothy was used as shelter from the storm if the agricultural workers and the livestock had ventured far up the mountains. They were most commonly used in late winter or early spring when sheep were birthing lambs in the wild and there needed to be hands there to assist.  

In England full ownership of farmland is common; but in Scotland many  farms are tenant operated; ultimately being owned by the crown.  Farm operators were obligated to have good safety records and have good staff retention; so it was essential that these hill-farm-hands were kept safe; and happily employed. 

A Bothy is primative; there is no electric or gas or even running water. Only one of the 97 has a toilet; but you have to fill a bucket and use loch water to flush it.  The bothy was designed to do three things, the roof kept the rain out, the walls kept the wind out, and the fireplace kept the heat up.  There is no occupancy limit in a bothy; it simply fits however many people need it - depending on the weather.  Most of the time the Bothy stood empty; waiting to help whoever was in deperate need of shelter. 

To many the Bothy is a place to escape to; even if there is no storm when you look out the window; storms come and go in peoples minds. Men especially took up cycling or hiking to the Bothy; just to get away from it for a while.  A place to challenge oneself; in nature against nature - finding firewood; trying to catch a fish; trying to keep the fire going. 

Then came the internet. Online groups started sharing the location of the Bothies and a new oblique hobby was popularised to those who had already finished "brown signing" and "stamped penny collecting".   

There is something of a dispute in the community; The Bothy Bible was published by Geoff Allann in 2017 - and the pre bible and post bible sects of the Bothying community were torn a sunder. The fear of course being that if these Bothys become instragrammable locations;  then the worst thing could happen - it might be so busy that you would have to share the Bothy; with total strangers - rather than hike down the mountain in poor weather.  What I find funny is; sharing the Bothy in times of poor weather was the whole reason Bothys were left unlocked in the first place. 

The Bothy is one of the vernacular architectural precedence examples behind BROTHER igloo; it is a place that is owned by the landowner for the open access use of the vulnerable.  Not to be visited by large groups but visited alone. With the BROTHER igloo project; the land owner is always asked permission first - as in todays day and age we can communicate without needing a postal system. The Bothy Code states that  the landowner needs to grant permission after a "few nights" of continued use.  After much detailed research into rough sleeping - we found that most people will not spend a second night on the street; - on any given night 600 women and 1,500 men sleep rough; but this is a rolling figure. The probability that a homeless person cannot find shelter for the night is about 1%

We offer a free IGLOO in your Garden; on a perpetual £0 lease; if you agree to sponsor your local homeless community ensuring that nobody needs to even spend one night on the street. If you would like to apply as a benefactor; click here. 

You do not have to do anything; but remove your valued possessions and unlock the door if we have a beneficiary asking us for emergency shelter and permission to use a BROTHER igloo.  It is not advised to give any further help than this; as a safeguarding policy you cannot have any children or elder in this household - while it is true that homeless people are people too; many are recovering from drug dependece issues; or have been recently released from hospitals, care facilities and even prisons - it is not insulting to say that many rough sleepers cannot be trusted too much; and if we were to drill down into it - this trust issue is the reason why rough sleepers cannot find housing.   Brother IGLOO is a compromise; a deal; a work around of the issue. Nobody wants to see people sleep rough; and it is equally true that nobody wants to leave rough sleepers in their own house.  Brother IGLOO simply asks; "Would you let a rough sleeper sleep in a Garden Annexe instead?"  I am not asking you to do the noble thing but the decent thing.