The Bothy
The above pictures are of the “Bothy” as it is in 2023. Below, I’m mapping out the progress of the Bothy from idea, to spade in dirt, to where it is now.
The journey ...
“The Bothy” as it has come to be known, is located at the bottom of the garden overlooking the pond and beyond that, the council allotments. Its existence arose out of an interesting set of circumstances that I will document at a later date in the “Stories” section of the site. I’ll try to capture the origins briefly here. About six months prior to the build beginning (late 2017), we became aware of a neighbourly dispute between two households three gardens down on our left. The dispute centred around 4 x 50-60ft conifers that bordered one of the gardens. The household without the conifers complained that they were impinging on their land and asked for them to be taken down. There was no peaceful resolution, it went to court, the result favoured the complainants and an order was given to remove them.
“Interesting”, you might think … but what has this got to do with the Bothy? Well, at that time I was in serious contemplation mode regarding how the bottom garden might look. I’d wandered down, pre-work, to cogitate, when there was a shout from the garden two doors down.
Workman “‘ere mate, do you want any wood for your burner?”
Me “we don’t have burner mate but chuck a few logs over, we have a barbie every now and then”
Off to work I went. That evening, I went to the bottom of the garden to discover that the workmen had dumped about 2/3 of the wood into our garden! That amounted to approximately two trees worth of roughly cut timber. They’d long gone by then so there was no time for any remonstrations. What the hell was I going to do with all that wood!!!
In other pieces on the site, you may have picked up one of the seeds of my personal philosophy when it comes to being confronted by a potentially less then positive surprises, namely, the habit of turning a threat into an opportunity. This was no exception. I quickly dumped the “What if” thinking, and after only a few minutes, “what am I going to do with all that wood … oh shit!” turned to “what am I going to do with all that wood … think of the possibilities”.
I kid you not, within 30 minutes I was thinking “Semi circle of wood … seating area on the inside …secluded space … peaceful … hidden from view on three sides …”
… and so the idea of the Bothy was born.
The “semi-circle” idea was borne out of my fondness for areas of seclusion within the garden. This thought, allied with my love of secluded seating areas, combined quickly to form a picture of a semi-circle of roughly hewn tree stumps, maybe 6ft or so high, planting round the back of the structure (no idea what plants yet), and a seating area within that looked down the remaining 40ft of the garden and out on to the allotments beyond.
It’s worth noting that the idea of a pond was still some months away. At that time, my intention was to have a wildflower meadow feel to that section of the garden.
So … to the build. A simple structure, no nods to perfectionism here, chainsaw on the logs, roughly divided in two and assembled in a semi-circle, fixed to a series of 4×2’s with metal corner brackets, a “peep-hole” created to the rear enabling a view back up the garden (see pic 2 above), a base constructed for the deck boards … job done. As a lover of “curves” in gardens went for a curved, symmetrical extension to the deck, the intention being that it created a platform on which to look further down the garden.
My attention then turned to the planting. There were to be no plants within the structure (it still hadn’t been christened as the Bothy), I want a clean space for sitting, meditating, chatting, drinking, watching, resting etc). The planting was designed to colonise the outer shell, my thinking being that, as anyone walked into the space (#bottomofthegarden), they wouldn’t be aware of the space beyond and there would be a “reveal” as they rounded the structure. In the video below you can see my first purchases were two climbers … a spring flowering clematis (Armandii “Apple Blossom”) and a David Austin Rose (“The Patient Gardener” – possibly some irony here!). Around the base of the “Woodgloo”, (an early but quickly rejected moniker) I planted tulips, ferns, and bluebells. It seemed like a solid start for the first year.
So how did we end up with the word “Bothy”. I suppose the first question is: “Why call it anything?” The simple answer is: “It makes life simpler”. If I’m wandering down the garden, it’s sometimes useful to let others know where you might be found. A broader reason relates to areas in the garden having an identity. This creates a focus for design consideration, for compartmentalising how different areas within the garden relate to each other, and for providing these areas with a life of their own. So, a name was required, and various iterations were tried, tested and found wanting (e.g. the “woodgloo”).
We settled on Bothy for several reasons. Firstly, it captured some of the core elements of what this space was about. The design was such that it provides some shelter from the seasonal elements, a core element with regard to the definition of a Bothy. At roughly 2.3m high, it acts as a solid windbreak. Unless there’s a full-on North wind, the Bothy provides refuge, and the gentle, upward slope of the facing allotments make an “in your face” assault much less likely. In the summer, there is a robust 2 chair, table, and large umbrella ensemble that provides much needed shade. The semi-circular design acts as an acoustic focus for what’s happening immediately in front of the space. Background noise recedes even further into the background and the gentle patter of water in pond and associated wildlife activity is amplified.
Secondly, it was a short and pithy name, easy on the lips, and easy to remember.
You can see the first plants to adorn the outer shell of the Bothy in the video above. On the cusp of the seating area you can also see a lovely Salvia (“Amistad”).
Just after the bones of the build were completed, I read the book “Life in the Gardener’s Bothy” by Arthur Hooper (pic below). Other than “shelter”, Arthur’s Bothy and mine have nothing in common!
To read the review, press link below
More to come …