Bearnais bothy
Bothies are remote, rural cottages that have outlived their original purposes but now are kept unlocked for people to take shelter or stay overnight without charge. They are located mostly in Scotland, with a small number in England and Wales, and have extremely basic facilities - with no electricity, gas, or piped water. The Mountain Bothies Association, established in 1965, is a charity that maintains bothies.
Bothies are primitive shelters found primarily in Scotland (particularly in the Highlands) but also in remote parts of Wales and northern England. Highland Scotland has a low density of population by European standards – indeed, in a few remote areas the population has declined over the last 200 years due to emigration following the Highland Clearances and the Highland Potato Famine, together with migration to the cities because of industrialisation. In consequence, ruinous, but and ben cottages are often to be found abandoned in remote areas. Also, bothies were built for deer stalking (deer shooting), quarrying, cattle droving and shepherding but these have also fallen out of use.
The owners of these abandoned properties sometimes allow them be used freely by backpackers, climbers and the like – they are simply kept unlocked. There is no charge for use but neither are there any facilities – they have no electricity or piped water supply.
The Mountain Bothies Association was established in 1965, becoming a Scottish charity in 1975, to take on the basic care and maintenance of some of these shelters, with the cooperation of the owners who sometimes help financially. The first bothy to be restored was Tunskeen. The organisation has over ninety bothies, mostly in Scotland but with a few in England and Wales all of which may be stayed in without any charges at all. Very rarely is there vehicular access and in some cases, even those located on the mainland are more directly accessible by boat.
...
Wikipedia