The Bothy Project.

It is not every day that someone offers you a bothy, pre fab, insulated, small enough to be a temporary structure, large enough to stay in. A month ago that's exactly what happened and so, hot on the heels of the Beermoth comes The Bothy Project. This is how the project describes itself.

'A cross-disciplinary art project that aims to develop a network of
small-scale art residency spaces in distinct and diverse locations
around Scotland.

A platform for artists to journey and explore the peculiarities of Scotland’s history, mythology, ecology, landscape and people.

An opportunity to inhabit existing buildings and create purpose built structures'.

So last week the bothy moved from its temporary home at Edinburgh Sculpture workshops and arrived here on a truck on Saturday. Today is day 3 of the build, there is a troupe of willing bothy builders now cooking breakfast at the Beermoth and by close of play today the walls will be up, by the end of the week the building will be finished and between artist residencies it will be available to rent.

The Beer Moth has landed.

After 6 months of not hurrying the job it finally took a man called Kevin to get the Beer Moth up and running.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with it the Beer Moth is a 1956 Commer Q4, 4 ton 4x4, ex auxiliary fire service hose carrying truck. I bought it in Kent back in February with the intention of adding it to the stable of oddball holiday options put out through Canopy and Stars. I penned a few words then about our slow and woefully fuel consumptive journey home. By the Insider it had gained a taller hood frame, a back wall and a staircase, all recycled, a parquet floor which has travelled with me in rubble sacks for years, a snooker table slate for a hearth (which we put in the wrong place on our first attempt) and the major expense, a beautiful custom canvas by Classic Covers. At the same time, with lots of handy folks, the farmyard gained a Rayburn no 1, the very first model of Rayburn, current when the truck was built, about half a ton and in this case, wanting to be totally rebuilt.


Kevin had seen the yurt online and insisted on staying in the Beermoth even if it was unfinished, effectively throwing down the gauntlet with about a week to spare.

The bed (a brassy Victorian 4' double) got new slats and a mattress, I took apart the bits of the Rayburn that would come apart, Marcus MacBean fabricated a new flue box for it and trundled his forklift down to lift it in, a new flue arrived, solar lighting went in, an enamel 50s sink, little drawers for the cutlery, a hamper, enamelled plates, enamelled jugs and enamelled mugs. By the time Kevin got here it needed a doorhandle, a coffee maker, a tin opener that opened tins and it needed towing into the field by a terrified Sophie in our hopelessly inadequate tractor (a mystery electrical fault rendering it not working).

At the same time the water main to the farm packed up so to thank Kevin for galvanising us all into action we invited him to spend the first day of his holiday digging an enormous trench across the farmyard in the rain - that's him in blue, as seen through a very soggy phone.

Stuart and Rachel.

Big congratulations to Stuart and Rachel who had their wedding reception here last weekend, a lovely home made affair with heavy bunting, lots of hand made direction signs and they pretty much self catered it (with the help of their friends at the Mountain Cafe). They chose the traditional 30x50 marquee from Grants tent hire we used for last years Insider.

Then it was a mad rush to finish the Beer Moth for its first rental...