Glen Buick Bothy

Some friends of ours recently made a trip up to this bothy when they were staying with us for our recent wedding, and made some very glowing reports about the walk there, so Matt and I decided we would head up there when we had a quiet day at the hostel.

Yesterday such a day presented itself, we had only a few beds to change in the morning and nobody checked in for the evening; to top it all off though it was a fantastically sunny spring day with barely a breath of wind - perfect!

We left the van at the swing bridge at Aberchalder and walked along the canal towards Loch Oich, before heading onto the track leading through the Aberchalder estate. This took us past a beautiful estate cottage before turning right up the steep hillside. Dylan was enjoying every minute of this, his first proper walk since injuring his front left stopper paw a couple of weeks ago. Over the last couple of days he'd made sure he'd impressed on us that he was definitely fully recovered and ready for walks again by chewing everything in his sight - including plastic milk bottles freshly retrieved from the kitchen bin, my new pink fleece blanket and one of Matt's climbing karabiners. Once we'd cleared the debris from the floor for the 6th time in 2 days we decided it was definitely time to take him on a tiring walk.

And so up the hill we headed, Dylan running on ahead chasing bumble bees and eating sheep droppings, us just meandering upwards taking in the lovely sunshine and views across Loch Oich down to the Loch Lochy Munros and north up the Caledonian Canal towards Loch Ness. The path continued to snake its way up the hillside for an hour or so, and then we followed it over the top and into the very scenic Glen Buick. It was remarkable how fast the scenery changed and very soon we felt quite remote, despite having been at the road only an hour or so earlier. The path took us deep into the glen and we were treated to the sight of a few deer bounding away from the path as we approached them. Another hour later we could see the bothy ahead, and were soon opening the door for an exploratory peek. It seems a very well appointed bothy with two floors and a number of rooms with fireplaces, very well kept and would be very cosy on a cold night. We were content to sit outside in the sunshine and eat our lunch while Dylan raced about still revelling in his new-found freedom.


We could have sat there all day lounging in the sunshine but time was ticking on so we packed up, locked the bothy back up and went on our way. Dylan was soon tired - the tadpoles swimming in the puddles along the path were losing their entertainment value rapidly and he just soldiered on back to the van.


We barely had a peep from him all evening afterwards, which is just the way we like him, so will be planning the next outing as soon as possible. The books are right in one respect at least: a tired dog is indeed a well behaved dog!

Jen x