Kat Hill explores the magic of Bothies

Not far from Wigtown, in the folds of the Galloway hills, is Tunskeen bothy, the very first building to be taken over by the Mountain Bothies Association as a simple shelter for anyone out hiking in the hills. It feels fitting, then, to speak at Wigtown Book Festival about these huts which are free, open to all and cared for by the community who uses them.

Interweaving history, culture, literature, poetry and philosophy

Bothy is not a memoir, but it is a personal book about my journey away from academia, city life and crisis to something different. Nor is it not a simple piece of nature writing – at least, I never conceived of it in that way. I wanted to interweave history, culture, literature, poetry and philosophy, as well as my love of the living world, and share with readers all the things that sparked my imagination and enticed me. Every bothy became a jumping off point for a different set of themes and ideas about refuge, companionship creativity or sustainability.

People often ask me what my favourite bothy is, but I find that almost impossible to answer, because each experience is shaped by changing weather and collections of fellow travellers. Visiting the same bothy in different seasons reveals varied, shifting worlds, and because you can’t book a bothy you never know who will be there. It’s often that specific set of circumstances and people that makes an experience special, and every time is different. Something that provided inspiration for the book were the bothy visitor books, full of drawings, stories and anecdotes which record these fleeting encounters in front of fires on cold, wet nights.

New role with Upland

It’s a special kind of privilege to be at Wigtown Book festival and to be speaking in a town which is devoted to the love of literature. There are a few places like it, and I could hardly have imagined this a few years ago as I embarked on a creative career. So much has changed since I first stepped inside a bothy. I am currently going through final edits on my second book which explores things that are vanishing and disappearing in an age of crisis, and I recently started a new role as Creative Director for Upland, a visual arts organisation in Dumfries and Gallery which represents creatives across the region and delivers ambitious work.

Temperate rainforests of D&G

So, as well as speaking about my own writing, I will be introducing a wonderful film made by lens-based artists Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant. As part of Upland’s Artful Migration residency they have been working in the temperate rainforests of Dumfries and Galloway which are incredibly biodiverse but also fragile. It’s really exciting to be introducing this work supported by Moving Souls and produced with our partners, the Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere and RSPB.

Hopefully, this is just the start of a whole series of conversations and connections, but events like this feel like the culmination of so many of interests and my ambitions: the desire to write, to work with creatives, to centre my work on the environment and culture, to engage communities. It’s a far cry from London, and all of this started with the humble bothy,

And anyone who is inspired by the book can take a wander into the hills after the book festival is over and stop off in the very first official MBA shelter.

You can buy tickets for Kat's event on 1st October on our website.