Organisation
MBA
Also called: Mountain Bothies Association
Definition
The Mountain Bothies Association is a registered charity that maintains around 80 mountain shelters across Scotland, England and Wales. Founded in 1965, the MBA is run almost entirely by volunteers and funded by member subscriptions (around £30/year) plus donations and small grants.
Etymology & origin
Founded in 1965 by Bernard Heath after the MBA's first work party renovated Tunskeen bothy in Galloway. Heath's original vision was to coordinate the informal maintenance that climbing and walking clubs had been doing piecemeal on derelict shepherd's cottages since the 1930s. The organisation grew through the 1970s as more landowners offered abandoned buildings for adoption.
Context & usage
The MBA does not own bothies. It maintains them under formal agreements with the underlying landowners — usually private sporting estates, Forestry and Land Scotland, National Trust for Scotland, or local authorities. The buildings remain the property of the landowner; the MBA provides volunteer labour and materials for repair, weather-proofing, fireplaces and visitor books.
Maintenance is coordinated regionally. Each bothy has a designated MO (Maintenance Organiser) who oversees one or two work parties a year — usually a weekend trip with a dozen volunteers to do roofing, masonry, woodwork or interior fit-out. The MBA's annual journal records this work and the financial position; the latest accounts are filed with OSCR (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator).
The MBA's biggest political challenge is the modern increase in casual bothy use. Social-media publicity has driven significantly higher footfall to easily-accessible bothies, with associated problems: overflow camping, fire-pit damage, rubbish, and friction with the underlying landowners. The MBA actively discourages publicity that names bothies as tourist destinations and lobbies social-media platforms to remove tagged bothy posts that breach the underlying landowner agreements.
Related terms
Bothy
A bothy is an unlocked stone shelter in a remote part of the Scottish hills. They have a roof, four walls, sometimes a fireplace — no booking, no key, no warden, no fee. Most are maintained by the Mountain Bothies Association (MBA); the rest are kept open by private estates as a courtesy to walkers.
SOAC
The Scottish Outdoor Access Code is the statutory guidance that sets out how the right of responsible access granted by the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 should be exercised. The Code governs wild camping, walking, cycling, water activities, horse riding, dog walking and other recreational access across most of unenclosed Scotland.
Where to next
Reviewed 2026-05-28