18. Kat Hill: Bothies, Dwelling and Landscape Histories

Peter speaks to the author and researcher Kat Hill about bothies and what they can teach us about histories of dwelling and place. Kat is the author of Bothy: In Search of Simple Shelter, published in 2024 by William Collins.

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:58) Who is Kat Hill?

(04:03) What is a bothy?

(05:08) How did your interest in bothies begin?

(09:18) What happens to old bothy guestbooks?

(11:16) When did you decide to write a book about bothies?

(14:08) What was the development of the book like? 

(16:21) Why did you choose the title?

(18:42) How did bothies open a space for you to better understand yourself?

(23:58) What is it that defines a bothy?

(26:22) When we emphasise a bothy as a place of retreat what kind of meaning is being lost?

(28:59) What can the military history of Cape Wrath tell us about the meaning of wilderness?

(34:00) How can bothies help guide us through the environmental questions of our age?

(38:49) What can bothies tell us about what it means to dwell?

(44:06) How can bothies help inform new architectural models?

(53:20)  Sandy, the Cape Wrath Hermit of Strathchailleach Bothy

(57:18) How can bothies open up the skies for us?