OCTOBER 2022 · GROUNDED
Grwyne Fawr Bothy
Grwyne Fawr Bothy · Black Mountains, Wales
The Mountain Bothy Association lists the Grwyne Fawr bothy on their register. The description notes it is the smallest MBA shelter in the UK. It is sometimes referred to, informally, as the Horrible Bothy. The name refers to the conditions rather than the experience, which are different things. The building is a 1920s waterworks maintenance hut, stone-built, repurposed by the MBA after the waterworks was decommissioned. Inside: cold stone floor, a sleeping platform reached by a ladder, and whatever light comes through the small windows.
Getting there is 2.5 miles up the valley from the nearest road. The valley follows the Grwyne Fawr stream upward toward the reservoir, the hills rising on both sides. In October the bracken is fully turned — deep gold and rust against the moorland. The autumn colour in this valley is specific and generous. The bothy sits in it, dark stone against the warm bracken, the stream below.
The name refers to the conditions rather than the experience, which are different things.
Grwyne Fawr Bothy — October 2022
In the evening light — golden hour, low and October-angled — the bothy silhouettes against the sky in a way that makes the structure look more significant than its dimensions justify. A hiker in an orange jacket approaches along the valley path, the building behind them. The proportions are correct: small structure, large valley, small person, large hillside.
The reservoir above the bothy is a simple Victorian engineering project: a stone dam, a railing across the top, a waterworks building on the far side. From the dam, the valley rolls back toward the hills, the autumn brown slopes reflecting in the still water.
The stream below the bothy runs over stone. In October, when the rain has returned, it runs fast.
Bothy structure silhouetted against golden hour light in autumn valley
Hiker in orange jacket approaching the remote stone bothy building
Autumn moorland valley with stream winding through sparse golden vegetation
Dark stone bothy nestled among autumn bracken with stream below
Stone bothy surrounded by golden autumn vegetation and moorland