Corrour Bothy
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Corrour Bothy is a simple stone building on
Mar Lodge Estate Mar Lodge Estate is a highland estate in western Aberdeenshire, Scotland, which has been owned and managed by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) since 1995. Its principal building, Mar Lodge, is about west of the village of Braemar. The esta ...
,
Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...
,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. It is located below Coire Odhar between
The Devil's Point The Devil's Point (Scottish Gaelic: Bod an Deamhain) is a mountain in the Cairngorms of Scotland, lying to the west of the Lairig Ghru pass. The Gaelic name means "Penis of the Demon". The English name is a result of a visit to the area by Qu ...
and
Cairn Toul Cairn Toul (, 'hill of the barn') is the 4th-highest mountain in Scotland and all of the British Isles, after Ben Nevis, Ben Macdui and Braeriach. The summit is 1,291 metres (4,236 feet) above sea level. It is in the western massif of the Cair ...
on the western side of the River Dee in the
Lairig Ghru The Lairig Ghru () is one of the mountain passes through the Cairngorms of Scotland. The route and mountain pass partially lies on the Mar Lodge Estate. Like many traditional routes, the ends of the route through the Lairig Ghru are like the e ...
. The
bothy A bothy is a basic shelter, usually left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge. It was also a term for basic accommodation, usually for gardeners or other workers on an estate. Bothies are found in remote mountainous areas of Sco ...
is a single room with a fireplace and chimney in its northern
gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
. Its dimensions are 19.6 ft (6 m) by 11.8 ft (3.6m). There is a toilet in the wooden extension to the building. It is used as a mountain refuge and as a starting point for ascents of
Munro A Munro (; ) is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevi ...
s including The Devil's Point, Cairn Toul, and
Braeriach Braeriach or Brae Riach (, 'the brindled upland') is the third-highest mountain in Scotland and all of the British Isles, after Ben Nevis and Ben Macdui, rising above sea level. It is in the Scottish Highlands and is the highest point in t ...
.


Name

The name ''Corrour'' is used as a name for the locality as well as specifically as a name for the bothy itself, the name being derived from Coire Odhar according to
Adam Watson John Hugh "Adam" Watson (10 August 1914 – 24 August 2007)
''The Telegraph'', 28 S ...
: Watson gave the local pronunciation as ''Corower'', but without explanation. However,
Seton Gordon Seton Gordon CBE (1886–1977) was a Scottish naturalist, photographer and folklorist. Gordon began exploring the Highlands of Scotland as a boy, particularly the Cairngorms. He later became a world-famous naturalist, photographer and folklori ...
, appears to suggest the final-vowels of ''Coire'' (and corrie) are dropped to give ''kor'', and that the ''dh'' in ''Odhar'' are silent because they follow a vowel—giving what sounds like ''kor-Oar'', or like the ''cor-ower'' suggested by Watson. In spite of Watson's earlier work and his understanding of Gaelic—and its local dialect— Dixon and Green suggested an alternative origin for the place name as a shelter for the , or forester's assistant.


History

In 1975 Watson wrote that the people of Mar used Coirie Odhar as a summer shieling for their cattle in the early part of the nineteenth century, but in the later part "the area was kept clear for deer".


Deer watchers

The original bothy was built in 1877 to house a deer watcher during the summer, and it housed several including Charles Robertson, John Macintosh, and Frank Scott before the estate stopped using the bothy in the 1920s. In 1948 Gordon gave some detail about its occupation by deer watchers: An even earlier mention, from 1901, gives an account of passing Corrour Bothy:


Open bothy

In 1975 Watson wrote that the last watcher at Corrour Bothy was Frank Scott who left in 1920. After then it then became a 'famous open bothy' with a visitor book being left there in 1928 by the Rucksack Club of University College, Dundee. In 1949 the bothy was reconstructed by members of the Cairngorm Club, with help from a wide range of individuals and other mountaineering clubs. Archaeologically, the site is complicated: close to the bothy there are stones in the ground that appear to have formed part of some earlier construction, perhaps the remains of the summer shieling-huts. Dixon and Green considered that they found "the remains of a hut with stone-footings, which is set into the grassy slope a short distance south-east of the present hut".


Present

Tait, in 2006, described the bothy's origin, its reconstruction in 1949 by the Cairngorm Club, and the fact that it is maintained by the
Mountain Bothies Association The Mountain Bothies Association (MBA) is a Scottish registered charity. It looks after 104 bothies and two emergency mountain shelters (not to be mistaken for or confused with a mountain hut, as the Fords of Avon and Garbh Choire refuges are ...
when reporting on the acquisition of full
planning permission Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to buil ...
by the Mountain Bothies Association to add an extension to the bothy to house toilet facilities. A composting toilet has been installed in the extension at the south gable end of the bothy. Visitors' books started being kept in 1928 and many are preserved, being archived mostly by the Rucksack Club at the Dundee University Archives. Ralph Storer has published extensive extracts from the books, making the observation that, over the years, their literary merit has lagged behind the increase in visitors.


Gallery

Image:corrourbothy_from_lairigghru.jpg , Corrour Bothy Image:corrour_bridge.jpg , Bridge over Dee at Corrour Bothy Image:corrour_general 01.jpg , The Dee near Corrour Bothy Image:corrourbothy_03.jpg , Corrour Bothy


See also

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List of Mountain Bothies Association bothies A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*
Places, place names, and structures on Mar Lodge Estate Mar Lodge Estate is the largest remnant of the ancient ''Earldom of Mar'' in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland. Allanaquoich A locality on the east bank of the Quoich Water close to its confluence with ...


References


Sources

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External links

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gallery of photographs
by Joe Dorward {{coord, 57, 02, 27, N, 3, 40, 45, W, display=title Places and place names on Mar Lodge Estate Buildings and structures on Mar Lodge Estate Cairngorms