A refuge in the wild. Strathchailleach and Strathan Bothy. Our adventure in the far NW of Scotland
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- Опубликовано: 16 ноя 2024
- After a stunning night wild camping at Sandwood Bay, Sutherland (alas we saw no ghostly sailors or mermaids) we spent the next two nights exploring the legendary bothy of Strathchailleach and then onto Strathan Bothy. The paintings of James McRory Smith "Sandy" who lived at Strathchailleach for 32 years are still on the walls. Sipping a dram by a peat fire as darkness fell was a great experience.
As always, thank you for watching.
#bothy #wildcampinguk #wildcamping #wildcampingscotland #sutherland #sutherlandshire #paintings
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Fantastic,
Thank you, I’ve great memories of that trip 👍
Oh I enjoyed that canny lad😎😉🖤 What a great trip under some tricky weather.... KTF🙏
Thanks very much. It was a great trip for me- one of my bucket lists. Fabulous to see Sandy’s paintings. TFW 👍
Good to see you in the North East and Northumberland. Love the Tors. Great video ta.
Thank you very much. I might do some camping up around the Tors, don’t get that way very often, ATB, Graham 👍
@@grahamswildcamping Doh! Don't know how I did that Graham. 🤔😄I do love your videos and subscribe but my comment was meant for Glen's, North Face Wanderer's new video. 😂
@@steverobbo770 haha! 😂 no worries!
Really Good videos Graham you deserve more subscribers thanks Richie
Thanks very much- that’s appreciated, helps to know it’s worth making a few more. ATB, Graham
Great video, lovely bothies, very envious! 😊
Thanks, the bothies were fascinating. Getting to see Sandy’s paintings was a bit of a bucket list thing for me. Amazing.
Very enjoyable video: I wild camped in Sandwood Bay a couple of years ago: One of the most beautiful beaches in the UK. A fantastic walk in and an amazing area: So good to see all those familiar places again in an all round good vid. 👍😍😍
Thank you for your kind words, much appreciated. Agree about Sandwood Bay, it’s one of the most interesting and beautiful places I’ve camped, I loved it. Cheers and ATB, Graham 👍
Nice video as usual,
Great bothys,
loved the bothy history
what a great trip
very bleak up there, i have never had much luck with the weather up there, only once at Altnaharra where it was too hot !!!!
Keep em coming
Thanks, we were pretty lucky with the weather. It is bleak up there but there’s a real dramatic beauty to it.
Some tough ground in places, thanks for the history and the wander.
Partly it was the lack of paths that made the going tricky but also very boggy. Thanks for taking the time to comment, cheers, Graham 👍
Loved it Big G.
Thank you Mr Pimperton, had a great time up there exploring and putting the video together.
There's nothing quite like being in a hut (Bothy) when the rain is falling, wind is blowing, and you have a roaring fire in the fireplace. It is so much like our hut system in NZ. We have a vast network of huts in my local mountain range, (52) The range is equivalent to the distance of London to Brighton and 30k wide. We have many long swing bridges and rule is, only one person at a time when crossing. and they can be from 10M long and up to 40-50M long and at a Hight of 60 M. Really enjoyed the video. ATB Cheers from the mountains of NZ 😀😀
Spot on. Being cosy in a bothy with a roaring fire and a dram of whiskey when it's wild outside is one of the finer things in life, no doubt.
Sounds like your local mountain range is fantastic, especially with that range of mountain huts. Thank you for commenting, great to know some of the videos are getting to NZ! ATVB, Graham 👍👍
Great video Graham! Lovely to meet you all! Glad you had decent weather walking to Strathan! We're making our way through your back-catalogue of videos now! Great channel!
Great to meet you and Nicola as well! We enjoyed your company at the bothy. Hope you had a good trip back. Thanks very much 👍
19.50 'store' - that's a store for the peat that you are going to cut and set up to dry, then bring in the peats already set up to dry, to replenish the dry peat that you are going to burn. Just like you forgot to tell us that is what you did at Strathchailleach.
It’s obvious now that you’ve pointed it out, not sure why I didn’t think of that at the time, thanks for the info 👍
Great video, I too covered the same route rexently after your trip. Brings back great and challenging times. Great idea filming, commentating and editing. Keep it up
Thanks very much, it’s a great area to explore. Loved it up there. Thanks for taking the time to comment, ATB, Graham
A great adventure mate . Loved it
Thanks Dave, it was a great little trip 👍
Great 👍
Cheers man ! ATB, Graham
Peat won,t burn chap,s until dried out! That,s the reason Sandy lived in the bothy, a peat bank outside. You were welcomed if you had a bottle of whisky, if not, bugger off to Srathan. Found it a dark & dismal place, the legendary London Stores was Sandy,s twice a month resupply.
You're deffo right about peat needing to be dry! We did leave some in the store to dry for the next visitors. I loved strathchailleach for its paintings and atmosphere but Strathan did have a wider, open, cleaner sort of feel to it. Did you ever meet Sandy?
@@grahamswildcamping No never met Sandy but have Scottish mates that did, he was a cantankerous old boy, had tradgedy in his life, so you need to make allowances.
@@steveworthington930for sure. I read a bit about Sandy’s life and you’ve gotta respect anyone who lived through what happened to him.
Brilliant adventure that Graham👍🏻 Absolutely class. Enjoyed listening to all of the history, good crack between you and the rest of the lads as well. Definitely somewhere I’d like to get up and explore in the future. Thanks for sharing mate, really enjoyed them👍🏻😁 Cheers. Mark
I'd totally recommend getting up there Mark, so much history and so much to explore. Great to see Sandy's paintings on the bothy. Cheers marra 👍
Great video to capture the continuing adventure - really enjoyed it. Cheers 👍
Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it. ATVB, Graham
@@grahamswildcamping let me know if your passing North Northumberland , maybe catch up for a pint . Cheers Shaun
@@macinthewild8116 ok 👍
James is my great-grand uncle
That’s fascinating, I’ve read a bit about him and he seemed a real character. Did you know him well?
My great uncle Angus MacLeod built the original bridge below the bothy, a place extremely dear to my heart.
It’s great to hear little bits of information like this 👍 it’s a pretty special place, ATB, Graham 👍
@@grahamswildcamping we still have slides from when he built it, he was the last of an amazing generation. I would spend all my summer holidays on the croft in sheigra. His brother Donald was the shepherd out in strathaliach and stayed in the bothy before James mcrory's time. I caught my first salmon in the loch at the age of 11 now 48, I have so many wonderful memories it will always be my spiritual home.
Those sound like fantastic memories. The whole area felt like a magical place, wild but homely at the same time: thanks for sharing some of your memories of the place, much appreciated.
That was my mother in laws brothers house, so sad how they changed the house in the second half of this video. Winnie kilpatrick, nee Smith.
Always interesting to hear from folk who knew and were involved in places that are now bothies. It must be odd to see the place as it is now. Do you have any particular memories of it?
Sandy met his German wife during his military service in northern Germany after WW2.
Thank you, never knew this