It’s been a wet March in Scotland, which is very unusual, but the days start getting longer by the end of March. Over the weekend of 25th and 26th March, when daylight saving kicks in, me and Sid saw a ray of hope. It had stopped raining and it would be sunny over the weekend. It had been more than 3 months since my last Bothy adventure.
After one too many soggy s'mores, I finally learned my lesson and decided to treat the Scottish weather like the ultimate camping prankster. I had kept track of the weather for a whole week and decided to set off on the adventure on the 25th. I was looking for bothies which are accessible by public transport. Even after being in Scotland for the past 2 years, I had not explored the train route to Fort Williams from Glasgow. I came across the most remote station in the UK - the Corrour Station, it is a gateway to some of the great bothies and hikes to the magnificent Crorries.
Sid and I decided to do the Staoinaeg Bothy. We took the 8:23 am train to Fort Williams, it was a gloomy day with no hint of rain. I have been to Oban multiple times, and the train follows the same route until Tyndrum, from where the train splits. I have been to Fort Williams before by car, but the train ride gave me a new perspective on the same landscape. People onboard looked awestruck, even the residents, and started capturing the beauty on their phones.
The first stop after Tyndrum is the upper Tyndrum and then the bridge of Orchy. Till this point, the train follows the roadway which goes to Fort Williams, and further to Portree in Isle of Skye. One can see the Glencoe ranges, which are covered in snow. After Bridge of Orchy comes the Rannoch station, which is one of the Harry Potter movie shooting locations. The area between the Rannoch station and Corrour station is mostly boggy and the railway lines disappear in the deserted Munro’s. We saw the Gorton Bothy from the moving train and reached the Corrour station.
Corrour station is the highest station in the UK. It has a family-run restaurant which is open only from March to October. Today was the first day of the restaurant, it was opened after a staggering 5 months of extreme winters of the highland. We had our coffee to boost our mood and began our hike to the bothy.
The hike to the Bothy begins from the station. The beginning section of the hike is boggy. At some of the places the wooden planks are rotten making them useless to cross the boggy sections. But, the views of the Corrour estate and the train passing through this dreamy and alienated landscape cannot be described in words. Most of the beginning section till Loch Treig is mainly descend with the views of some of the magnificent and highest Ben’s (mountains of Gaelic).
While descending towards our bothy a 60-year-old man crossed us. He was carrying a backpack with hiker boots and was wearing an army jacket. We were struggling with the boggy parts, and taking extra time to cross the flooded sections. He was just running through them, amazed by this wonder we asked and he said just step into it anyway it is gonna get wet. His advice helped and we were quicker in that section, but by then he was metres away from us.
We kept adhering to the beauty and kept walking. On our way, we spotted the loch Treig and it was a view to behold. On our left was a burn which was gushing through the Glen making its way to the Loch. We could see a waterfall on the burn, which was making a gushing yet calming natural sound. That sound of the flowing waterfall amid silence calmed our souls down. We decided to take a tea break and enjoy the nature. The weather was cloudy with no hint of rain and wind. I took my burner out and set it up on a stone, made some masala chai for both and we started sharing our thoughts on life. When we were fully satisfied we packed up everything and began our hike.
We still had 4 hours of daylight remaining and the walk to both was 10kms. On our way, we came across the 68-year-old guy Davey who has been living in a tent by the Loch Treig for the last 16 years. After talking to Davey we got more inspired and began the rest of the hike. As we started from Davey’s campsite we saw an abandoned house next to the loch surrounded by the trees. It gave the feeling of the enchanted forest from the Harry Potter films. We crossed the Abhainn Rath, which has a footbridge. From here the trail is next to the Abhainn Rath, boggy in parts. As we kept ascending and descending by the Creag Ghuanach we saw the first glimpse of the Staoinaeg Bothy.
The Staoinaeg bothy sits on a small elevation, next to the Rath Burn. The view just beholds you. We had to cross the burn to get to the bothy. The burn was flowing with freezing water, we crossed the burn with our shoes on. After the crossing, we could feel our toes for a few minutes. We entered the bothy, the bothy was full of hikers. There was one father-son duo from Edinburgh, a solo hiker on a bothy hunt, a couple on a cycling trip across the highlands and a group of friends coming from Fort Williams. We unloaded our backpacks on the upper floor and decided to have some coffee out in the barn. Outside the bothy, there was a plain patch for pitching tents. in the distance we could see snow cladded Ben Nevis, engulfed with clouds. Sid made his coffee and I had some whisky to warm up the body as it was getting colder.
All the residents of the bothy went to search for dry wood in the nearby forest. We started axing one of the trunks of wood which was a part of the fallen tree just next to the bothy. Sid and I began sawing the wood for the night.
The Staoinaeg Bothy has two rooms with two fire pits one in each room. It can accommodate 15 people at a time. As it started getting darker, we joined the other hikers. The hikers community is always welcoming, I have hardly encountered any bad experiences during my hikes. Everyone is cheerful, maybe because of the whisky or the Buckfast, sharing their hiking experiences and the number of bothies they have explored so far. The fire pit was lit with the logs we had axed and the twigs collected by the fellow hikers. The water-drenched gaiters and socks were hanging above the fire pit to dry, surrounded by the hiking boots of all the hikers in the room. Everyone was sharing the food and drinks, and the topics of conversation ranged from politics to haunted stories. I decided to head out in the dark and feel the silence. It was cold and dark, with no sign of stars as it was cloudy. I could hear the sound of the gushing waterfall in the distance, the winds making a whooshing sound as they made their way through the glens and the Abhain Rath making its way to Loch Treig. After a while my eyes got adjusted to the dark and the pupils had become larger letting more light in. I started seeing the outline of Ben Nevis and the nearby glen, it had a very dark hue to it. After the brief rendezvous with nature, I went inside, and Sid and I had our dinner. We went to the room with the lit fire, soaked in some night and decided to call it a day. We decided to take it lightly the next day and explore the nearby Munros.
It dawned early the next morning, as the daylight saving had kicked in. I ventured out in the cold, to behold. I saw the best of Ben Nevis that morning, the first rays of the sun were falling on the snow-cladded top of the highest mountain of the UK. The whole mountain was shining in golden colour, the ice was disbursing the spectrum of lights which made the surroundings glow in gold. The bothy has some ruins next to it which added some character to the whole place. I took some pictures of the bothy and the Ben Nevis and started packing. We had our breakfast and headed out to traverse the nearby Munros. We did not cross the Abhainn Rath as it was very cold and we did not want to wet our shoes. Sid and I decided to walk by the river and find a crossing where we wouldn’t get our feet wet. We discovered an island next to the waterfall, which I could hear in the night, It was a perfectly sunny day. We stopped at the island and began meditating, with no man-made objects around us it was an experience to behold. After the mediation session, we began our hike towards the nearest Munro. From the bothy, while overlooking the Ben Nevis, we could see a tree on top of one of the Munros. We were heading towards that. Sid and I parted ways to cross the river, I crossed the river where the flow was not heavy and I had to remove my shoes so that I don’t drench myself. Sid found a place where the width of the river was narrow, but he had to take a longer route. There was no pathway to the top of the Munro, we were just finding our way. We came across a boggy patch, where I drenched my leg, all those precautions not to wet my shoes were in vain. Nevertheless, we started hiking towards that tree and when I reached there the view of Ben Nevis was more clearer. There was a stone next to e tree, I sat there and began absorbing nature through my senses. I could hear the Abhainn Rath flowing with its mild glory, the wind gushing through the Glen and the birds chirping in the distance.
After soaking in the sun for a while we began our hike back to the bothy, it was almost mid-day. We decided to take another path for which we had to cross the Abhainn Rath, which we did near the waterfall which we could see from the top of the Munro. It was difficult to cross that part, the water was gushing through the granite fiercely. We found a way through and reached the other side and reached our bothy.
We relaxed for a bit at the Bothy, wrote our experience in the Bothy book, bid adieu to the Staoinaeg and prepared to cross the river. It was midday still the water was ice cold. on our way back we witnessed a bit of all the weather, in the beginning, it began to rain, which was overcome by the hailstorm, then it was sunny for a while and it started snowing - a classic example of Scottish weather. Blaming the weather we kept walking and came across Davey’s campsite, we exchanged hellos and kept walking towards the Corrour station. We had a train to catch by 6:30 pm, almost 3 pm. The return hike is more challenging because of the ascend. With Sid’s company and singing our motivating songs we traversed the ascend while soaking in the beauty of the highlands. We reached the Corrour station, Sid had a nice burger meal at the station restaurant. I went to the Loch Ossian which is a 20 min walk from eh station.
The whole hike was a wonderful experience. It was Sid’s first time and mine was the 4 th bothy experience. On our return journey, we spotted the deers jumping in the Rannoch Moors and witnessed the golden sunset over the Glencoe ranges. As we reached Glasgow Queens Street, we were exhausted physically but, energised mentally for the coming weeks.
Going out in nature helps me mentally and physically prepare for the next few weeks. being outdoors adds value In terms of new experiences, meeting new people and understanding a bit more about self. It helps to understand my physical limits. Now waiting for my next bothy adventure very soon, as the summer is approaching which means longer days and longer hikes. Till then go out, spend at least 15 minutes in nature, go to a nearby park for a walk, observe things let your senses soak in the nature around you and feel the difference. See you in the next adventure.
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