Corrour Bothy is a simple stone building on Mar Lodge Estate

Mar Lodge Estate

Mar Lodge Estate is a Scottish Highland estate in Aberdeenshire, owned by the National Trust for Scotland. It is entirely contained within the Cairngorms National Park and important for nature conservation, landscape, recreation and culture.-Geography:...

, Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

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It is located below Coire Odhar between The Devil's Point

The Devil's Point

The Devil's Point is a mountain in the Cairngorms of Scotland, lying to the west of the Lairig Ghru pass. The name is derived from Gaelic, meaning "Penis of the Demon". The English name is a result of a visit to the area by Queen Victoria...

 and Cairn Toul

Cairn Toul

Cairn Toul is the fourth highest mountain in Scotland, surpassed only by Ben Nevis, Ben Macdui and Braeriach...

 on the western side of the River Dee

River Dee, Aberdeenshire

The River Dee is a river in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It rises in the Cairngorms and flows through Strathdee to reach the North Sea at Aberdeen...

 in the Lairig Ghru

Lairig Ghru

The Lairig Ghru is one of the mountain passes through the Cairngorms of Scotland.Like many traditional routes the ends of the route through the Lairig Ghru are like the ends of a frayed rope. From the south the Lairig Ghru can be approached from Braemar though Glen Lui, or Glen Dee, and from Blair...

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The bothy

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 to be found in remote, mountainous areas of Scotland, northern England, Ireland, and Wales....

 is a single room with a fireplace and chimney in its northern gable

Gable

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...

 - Tait (2006) gives its dimensions as being 6m by 3.6m.

It is used as a Mountain Refuge and as a starting point for ascents of Munro

Munro

A Munro is a mountain in Scotland with a height over . They are named after Sir Hugh Munro, 4th Baronet , who produced the first list of such hills, known as Munros Tables, in 1891. A Munro top is a summit over 3,000 ft which is not regarded as a separate mountain...

s including The Devil's Point, Cairn Toul, and Braeriach

Braeriach

Braeriach is the third highest mountain in Great Britain, surpassed only by Ben Nevis and Ben Macdui. It is the highest point in the western massif of the Cairngorms, separated from the central section by the pass of the Lairig Ghru. The summit has a crescent shape, with several corries...

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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 - Watson (1975) - who continues:
In Watson (1975) the author gives the local pronunciation as Corower, but without explanation. However in Gordon (1948) the section Hints on Gaelic pronunciation 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 in Watson (1975).

In spite of the earlier work Watson (1975) and his understanding of Gaelic - and its local dialect - Dixon & Green (1995) suggest an alternative origin for the place name as a shelter for the currour or forester's assistant.

History

In Watson (1975) the author writes 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 Gordon (1948) the author gives some detail about its occupation by deer watchers - continuing :
An even earlier mention in CCJ 17, July 1901 is an account of passing Corrour Bothy by William Skea - he writes:

Open Bothy

Later in Watson (1975) the author writes 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

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

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In 1949 the bothy was reconstructed by members of the Cairngorm Club

Cairngorm Club

-Founding:In Watson the author writes that it was founded at Clach Dhion - the Shelter Stone above Loch Avon in the Cairngorms on 24 June 1887...

, with help from a wide range of individuals and other mountaineering clubs Taylor (1950) - Watson (1975) - Tait (2006).

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. In Dixon & Green (1995) the authors write 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

In Tait (2006) the author refers to the bothy's origin, its reconstruction in 1949 by the Cairngorm Club, and the fact that it is maintained by the Mountain Bothies Association

Mountain Bothies Association

The Mountain Bothies Association is a Scottish charity which looks after almost one hundred shelters in some of the remoter parts of the UK.Most of the MBA bothies are in Scotland, with others in the north of England and Wales...

. The subject of Tait (2006) - is the acquisition of full Planning Permission

Planning permission

Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...

- by the Mountain Bothies Association - to add an extension to the bothy to house toilet facilities.

A composting toilet has recently been installed.

External links

• The Cairngorm Club's website
• The Mountain Bothies Association website
• A gallery of photographs by Joe Dorward