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Sam’s Croft Bothy

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Seeing as I had been hanging out with the Dirty Weekenders for two years but employment had kept me off every previous bothy I thought it time to pack in the job and have a good time instead. Plus it would be the last bothy John and Rosie were organising, so it was set to be a blast.

We drove out the luxurious accommodation of  ‘Combruith’ a huge hostel in the nearby Comrie village, we had the run of the whole place to ourselves and quickly got into the taxing task of picking rooms, mainly based on which was named after your favourite woodland animal. John and Rosie made us some delicious linguini (far superior to it round cousin, spaghetti). Morna, on a search for anything sweet orchestrated the baking of a great apple crumble with backup from Lizzie.

We went to bed well filled ready for a big day of work. Breakfast was the biggest pan of porridge I have ever seen in my life, with toast for the fussy. We set off to visit Sam for our first day of work, prepared for the worst wrapped up in waterproofs.

Plant beds

Sam’s Croft is a huge, very steep field, which they are in the process of converting into a (hopefully) profitable business. The tasks of the day were path construction (mainly pushing barrows of hardcore), plant bed construction (pushing barrows of horse muck) or tree planting (pushing barrows of woodchip). But we conquered it in typical Dirties fashion with Maximum Effort. There was the fun of an engine powered tractor that a couple of us got to drive about (and maybe have the odd race in).

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We needn’t have worried about the weather as it brightened up beautifully and we lazed about over lunch in the sunshine. After work some folks decided to walk home and took a stroll through the forest, where we found a lovely waterfall, of which some of us decided to climb up.

We came home to a delicious vegetable stew and the most epic game of sardines with 13 people in a cupboard or 14 jammed in a full storage room with the lights off. It quickly escalated into deception and subterfuge, with me, your poor narrator searching hopelessly on his own.

The second day of work was slower, mainly due to the weather, we still managed to get two rows of apple trees planted on the campsite nearby and another plant bed constructed through the rain, because We Are Heroes. Our hosts provided a delicious soup to bolster our sandwichy lunch but we soon had to get going (most of us had run out of energy) and we got back in the bus for a swift drive home.

Many thanks to John, Rosie and all those that helped out. It was a great weekend.

 

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Kilmartin/Taynish Bothy

Close to nature, free my heart
——Glasdrum Nature Reserve adventure

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(Group shot, hey, I am the nerd with the red hat in the middle

 

As a super nerd, I have spent most of my life staying indoors, exercise and fresh air are kind of luxurious products for me. This two day trip with the dirty-weekenders was an excellent chance for me to explore nature and release myself from ceilings and walls and high concentration of CO2.

It is my first time going to the wild area by car in a foreign country. As an exchange student, I am keen to explore new cultures and get know more about history and culture of this country. Due to a different background, I was kind of worried if I could adapt to living with the local people, Luckily, people are helpful and friendly this time, quite easy-going though I don’t know them until the day we gathered for departure. After two days trip, I already eager to ask when will next project happen and enjoyed the time spending with them, the most important reason is I don’t need to pretend to talk with people, cosy environment makes me relaxed. Besides, I got a nice cake and the secret ingredient from my lovely friend Morna.

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On the way from Edinburgh to Lochgilphead, I saw typical Scotland landscape. A lot of people major in geography in this society, they told me a lot of funny things about species and plants. That is a wonderful feeling I can learn things from real nature after accepting cram education for years. After 5 hours driving, we came to our bothy, I thought it was in marshland having received the email introducing this project.

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Playing Jenga in the Bothy with Sophie and Miguel

I was kind of worried that we need to camp in the wild, so when I saw the lovely bothy, it’s a kind of surprise that we still can live in modern society with a big kitchen and bathroom and can charge our phones. But I had no signals for two days, it is good for me anyway, I can get rid of the data explosion century and all the assignments for spending the most exciting weekend.

Day 1

We all headed to Glasdrum Nature Reserve to cut the gorse plant which can destroy the habitat of a rare red butterfly. The scenery of the natural reserve is extraordinarily impressive. “Walden pond” is the first phrase in my mind when I went there. To be honest, I have not been to remote and quiet places like this before, it’s like a shelter where you can take off your masks. I was dreaming of going to Walden pond when I read that novel, Henry David Thoreau described a perfect model of dealing with nature and purified the mess gradually when he spent two years alone around Walden pond. I am so glad I had a chance to sit in my “Walden pond”. There are no modern stores or any big traffic noises which provide me a chance to count for my heartbeat and time is frozen at that moment.

Another funny thing for me is to cut weeds by different tools I had never used before. For a Chinese student who grow up in the city, there is small possibility that they did this thing before. I already said I am the nerd person, my childhood is buried in various piano classes, my sight has been filled with cars for more than 20 years in my life. It is a wonderful experience for me to learn how to use these tools.

 

Day 2

On the first day, people are kind of doing their own things, but Sunday’s little game close peoples’ relationship, in that moment, I feel I belong to this society more than any other time. There are two situations I found easy to get along with people here ,one is in Pub, everyone drinks alcohol, another is in the journey to nature views. Nature has the magic to get rid of the suspect and distrust between people. I am in the harmony atmosphere during these two days I understand I am through the normal procedure of getting used to a new environment, after honeymoon and culture shock stage. I am in the stage of trying new things to adjust my thinking ways.

Thanks for my Dirty Weekenders to lead me around the marvelous view, and free my heart for two days in nature. I will keep it in memory forever even when I am back China. These two days experience let me know a more wild side of amazing Scotland.

Thanks again, my friends.

-Qin You

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Kilmartin/Taynish Bothy – Sunday

On Sunday, we returned to Taynish and got involved removing invasive Beech seedlings from an old-growth Oak woodland. We clambered about on some very steep slopes, spying the scattered seedlings by their conspicuous copper-coloured leaves. We ripped and pulled the seedlings, cutting their root systems to prevent them coppicing later on.

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Beech trees are considered non-native in Scotland by some and are prolific ecosystem engineers, meaning they can significantly alter their surrounding habitat. Oak woodlands support a rich plethora of understory shrubs and wildflowers due to their relatively open canopy and are highly valued by conservation groups, both for their role as a habitat, and their cultural heritage. If the area was to be colonised by Beech, however, with seeds blown in from nearby plantations, we would expect understory species richness to reduce due to Beech’s dense canopy and extremely recalcitrant leaf litter, which increases soil acidity.

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There were some stumbles, a few tumbling boulders (see picture above) and a lot of ticks but we managed to get quite a few of the little blighters. We took one last look at the beautiful scenery (see picture above above), before heading back down to the loch-side for our final lunch in the sunshine. We said farewell to Doug the Ranger, then started our trundle back to Edinburgh.

Words by John – Sketches by Dan