Off-grid and Off-line at Cragaig Bothy on the Isle of Ulva
Going ‘Full Walden’ at a Private Scottish Bothy
I open my front door to find two rams sitting on the step, thinking they had the place to themselves. In the bay, a skein of geese scatters three seals from a tiny island at first light.
As the first visitor to Cragaig Bothy in May this year, I am news to the wild congregation of animals who have been tenants on this rugged stretch of Scottish coastline over the winter.
The sky is azure; the earth is cool. I’m outside my own private bothy, in a week of unseasonably warm weather.
The whole of the island’s south side is mine, I feel like a character from a half-remembered childhood book—Sam Gribley in My Side of the Mountain—waiting to befriend an eagle so my defection from the modern world could be complete.
I eat breakfast watched over by white-tailed sea eagles, read evening pages by the guttering light of a candelabra, and spent nights in the attic hammock staring into a darker sky.
Tom, who manages the Bothy, calls by with logs and tells me that “people come here to step away from the busyness of their lives, and to have real experiences”.
But the “tonic of wildness,” as Thoreau called it, has an entry price.
For me, it was a two-hour haul from the ferry quay with a week’s worth of food and wine. Although Tom offers luggage delivery on his 4x4 quad bike, I wanted to ‘earn’ my stay.
I had foolishly bought a lightweight “festival trolley” for the trek, which I dragged through mud and ruts. I must have looked more like a medieval peasant than a modern sojourner. Eventually, I abandoned the contraption behind a rock, shouldered my bags, and walked the rest of the way in.
Life here is certainly a ‘real experience’. No electricity. Water boiled for safety. The wood burner’s eccentricities learned through cold mornings. The toilet often needing to be flushed with seawater.
We often talk about ‘stripping back’ as a luxury, but it’s really a transaction: with comfort traded for the primitive salve that a bothy offers.
Cragaig Bothy lies on a remote, beautiful coastline. No wifi and a single fluctuating bar of mobile signal force presence.
Time here can also be boring. That, too, is a novelty. Boredom is a kind of luxury now — something that only appears once we stop filling every quiet moment.
In the hills, wildness is often a pursuit—a peak to be gained. But a retreat is different. Once you arrive, there is no physical effort left, only the difficult invitation to drop familiar habits. As the days of silence mount, the ‘noise’ I usually carry began to feel like a heavy, unnecessary garment.
I wonder what Thoreau would make of our current era, where we carry the world's collective anxiety in our pockets.
On Ulva, the daily scroll was replaced by the daily seal watch. Updates were found in the movement of the tides or where the sheep had wandered off.
A stay in a bothy will ask what you consider essential in life—a good coffee and a nod to nature is one of mine.
PRACTICALITIES
I stayed at Cragaig Bothy, on the south side of Ulva, a small island off the coast of Mull.
The 4 mile walk to the bothy begins from the ferry jetty on Ulva, and is located on the route to the Ormaig.
See the route on walkhighlands.co.uk
56°28'15.3"N 6°13'03.5"W (opens in Google Maps)
How to get to the Isle of Ulva
Drive approximately 45 minutes from Craignure on Mull to Ulva Ferry. As no cars are allowed on Ulva, leave your vehicle at the visitors car park. Ulva is a 3 minute ferry crossing from Mull, operating on demand from 9.00am to 5.00 pm, April 1st through October 31st. Note that there are no sailings on Saturdays, and Sunday service runs only from June to August.
See my guide to the Isle of Ulva here.
Getting to the Isle of Mull
From Oban, on the Scottish mainland, take the car and passenger ferry to Craignure on Mull.
Book your crossing at CalMac Ferries.
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