For nearly 50 years Cicerone have been producing guidebooks on recognised treks, regions, areas and general tips for hikers. Given that grid refs are now so readily available, including many of the estate bothies, the issue these days isn’t perhaps keeping bothies secret but more about preventing their overuse and misuse. Trevor Mark Thomas’s first novel is a tense, violent drama involving desperate characters with little to lose apart from their lives. You could be forgiven for thinking that every aspect of hillwalking had already been written about, many times, and that most books about Scotland's mountains that are published these days are updating, revisiting or providing the author's personal slant on places and subjects that have been covered by others previously.

This detailed and beautifully photographed publishing guides you on a wild adventure through Scotland's landscapes to discover a network of bothy cabins and mountain huts that remain free to stay in. This is more a personal perspective of the 26 featured bothies and in this respect Smith has, in my opinion, done a rather commendable job with several pages devoted to each bothy and some excellent accompanying photographs (best viewed in the e-book version as the printed version is too small to appreciate them). At the beginning of each bothy covered is a map extract, photograph and some interesting reading about the bothy and the area.It is a classic set-up and The Bothy is a gripping read, Trevor Mark Thomas embraces the crime novel’s ability to create atmosphere from description: “After a while, Tom put the book down and watched the snow.

They are comfortable, warm, dry, and suitable for various activities, including wild camping, campsite camping, and everyday. I also loved that the lack of mobile signal means that communications are via a proper telephone – it added to the old-fashioned gangster feel and there’s more menace in having to pick up the ringing phone without knowing who’s at the other end. It’s somewhat unfortunate that Allan’s new book was published in February 2020, right before the Covid-19 pandemic which prompted the Mountain Bothies Association to close all of their bothies. Combine an author whose knowledge of and love for her subject is as obvious as her ability to convey that knowledge - and that love - to her readers; the extremely high production values we have grown used to from Cicerone Press; and a simply magnificent cover photo, and you have a book that is a sure-fire winner.Thanks to the fantastic work of the Mountain Bothies Association (MBA), the UK is home to a network of hundreds of bothies, lovingly maintained by volunteers for walkers and climbers to access some of the UK’s greatest wilderness. Tapping into the rising reputation and visibility of working class writing in the UK of late, Thomas has, with a limited cast of characters, constructed a dark, and unsettling book, packed to the gills with atmosphere and an overhanging miasma of violence. Now and again the owner of a particular bothy may impose restrictions on the use of their property, such as during the deer stalking season in Scotland or during lambing.

An original spin on the gangster crime novel and helps makes this book an original and compelling tale. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. She also made the point that she did inform the MBA of her intentions and received no objection, although, in a way, I’d hold that immaterial.

Perhaps there's a sense in the modern world that a system set up to provide visitors with free accommodation in some of the most remote corners of Scotland is simply too good to be true? The book is small enough to be packed away in a rucksack pocket, and yet is bursting with useful information, advice and some beautiful prose passages" Gorom Gorom review. I know that’s TV, but bothies being filled to over brimming because of guide book tourists would be a real shame.

Scotland: Highlands and Isle of Skye, Glenduror Forest, Fort Augustus, Spean Bridge, Rannoch Moor, Cairngorms, Galloway Forest, Fisherfield, Sandwood Bay, Oykel Bridge.Many of these tales reveal the difficulties of life in past years in some of Britain's remotest outposts. In addition, each has a picture of the inside and outside and a copy of notes left by the author for each visit. The author has a very femine writing style that almost made me want to follow her around from bothy to bothy like some kind of weirdo stalker. To get straight to People using a bothy must expect others to arrive looking for shelter and make room for them if that happens.