I’ve just woken up, and my nose is cold. I can hear the pitter-patter of rain on the tin roof and the morning chorus of birds. I brace myself and get out of bed, quickly wrapping a blanket around myself, then crouching down to light the fire. As it slowly builds to a roar, I bask in the glow.
The heat is welcome, as is the slow boil of the kettle on the stove top. Nature, however, calls, and for that first morning pee, it’s a quick chilly dash out of the door of the hut to the nearby composting loo. Stumbling outdoors, it’s an incredible sight. I am alone on a hillside with no other sign of civilisation in view. A mist hangs over the glen below, and the wind buffets the wooden hut I’ve just emerged from. A hill farmer’s Hebridean sheep busies away at my intrusion, calling to her companions. Having the milky morning light on my face suddenly makes me feel alert and ready to face the day.
As I re-enter the hut, grateful to be out of the stinging wind, the kettle whistles, causing my son to stir under his blankets.
This morning routine might sound like something from a period drama, but it’s one I’ve come to know well, having spent large chunks of the last year travelling off-grid in Scotland. It’s become a way of experimenting, as my husband and I try to move towards a more meaningful life for our family.
In this blog, we’d love to introduce you to our top five off-grid escapes in Scotland and encourage you to think, what would it be like to go somewhere with less to do and more time to think?
Our Scotland travels started due to our love of Shepherd’s Huts and us starting to write and photograph a book about huts and cabins in our beloved Scottish landscape. Nick, as a photographer, finds constant inspiration in Scotland’s wild places, while for me, Scotland’s wild places give me the mental space to feed my creativity.
Soon we started to think about what modern life has become and question: why do we keep needing to escape from it? And what is it about being off-grid and in a small, simple space that improves our wellbeing so much? As we travel, as well as writing our book, we’ve been asking ourselves, could and should we find a place more like this to live?
It's certainly true that modern life can feel overwhelming. With a nervous system designed to handle a village's worth of communication, the modern need to be constantly connected while receiving non-stop information feels wrong on some level. As working parents, we sometimes feel like doing it all is not conducive to a happy and healthy life. The meaning becomes lost in the never-ending detail. The last part-time job I applied for had a four A4 page job description, and my son’s school emails me at least 3 times a day, usually chirpily reminding me to bake something nut-free for the upcoming bake sale. To be a good employee while nurturing a small human, simultaneously maintaining our marriage, friendships and ageing bodies, practising self-care and keeping hobbies going is literally impossible. You’re always dropping a ball.
Staying in a small space off-grid with a small bag of your possessions allows you firstly to get rid of your phone and secondly to appreciate how many layers of your life are unnecessary, all while being comfortable, warm and connected to the landscape around you. For us, mindfulness lives in a hut.
Here are our five favourite off-grid escapes in Scotland, where we would heartily recommend venturing if you are open to experiencing a bit more of the simple life! We step into these amazing spaces to soften the pressures of modern life and to allow the physical quiet to turn into a profound mental quiet, which doesn’t feel possible elsewhere. Being off-grid means a bit of work to cook and stay warm, but it comes with a grounding sense of purpose, which is missing in the rat race.
Ochil’s Edge Shepherds Hut: Perthshire. This hut is clinging to the side of a hill in the rugged Ochil’s of Perthshire- it is an incredible location to base yourself. We stayed here for a time in winter and delighted in being in the cocoon of warmth while being absolutely battered by the elements from outside. Here we lived by the light of the pale winter sun, woodburning stove and candle, finding that we naturally headed to sleep as the light faded, then were up with the birds at dawn. Watching weather fronts come by and wildlife in its daily rhythm left us with a feeling of calm clarity. The facilities were fairly rustic, meaning time spent keeping water on the boil to cook and bucket wash with and scrubbing pans in a bucket in the rain.
The Sailean Project Bothy- Isle of Lismore. This ancient, restored bothy sits in isolation in its own little cove, which you share with a large White Tailed Sea Eagle and two fat seals. A waterfall for washing in crashes down the cliffs behind, with the stream running off into the sea. This stream turned out to be the perfect space to anchor a beer and the milk to keep them cool, as well as doing the dishes. We stayed in the bothy with our five-year-old, and family life became something very different with just one living space to share. Living in the bothy is like stepping back in time. A woodburning range to cook on, a large sleeping platform for the whole family to share (sleeping up to five) and a large wooden table and chairs is the extent of the interior. I felt deep, deep satisfaction as I sat on a rocking chair looking out of the window, as my small boy picked shells on the beach, knowing somehow that a mother will have sat and done just that in this spot 200 years ago.
Dall Bothy- The Cairngorms National Park. The remarkable makers of Dall Bothy bought the nearby derelict farmhouse 15 years ago and have built it up to a remarkable space. They had a sudden realisation that their children were only small once, upped sticks from the North of England and moved to this rugged valley accessed only by fording a river. Brett built the bothy by hand, and it is clad with reclaimed old fencing from a housing estate in Hull. The interior is like the most perfect family home in miniature, with a slightly magical Scandinavian feel. You sleep up in the rafters on a mezzanine sleeping platform, and below is a comfortable reading nook, sturdy table and chairs next to the large log burner. It has the ultimate off-grid kitchen with a gas double hob, solid food prep surface and sink with 5 litres of well water in a bottle to aid washing up. A small solar panel allows for a mini fridge and the charging of the bare essentials. The bothy is perched on the banks of the River Garry and even has a wood-burning hot tub (filled with buckets direct from the river). Sitting there at dusk was the most enjoyable still moment, disrupted only by the excitement of seeing two otters enter the water.
The Gardener’s Hut- Biggar: This custom-made Shepherd’s Hut sits cocooned in the organic walled gardens of a smallholding. The interior style is hobbitesque and minimalist, and it has an incredible outdoor gas shower with a clear Perspex roof allowing you to stargaze as you shower. The minimalism of this hut translated to a feeling of calm contentment, and we did a lot of reading and reflecting while we stayed. We visited in the summer and cooked on our camping stove in the gardens. We spent a lot of time sitting silently in the smallholding woodland at dusk waiting for the wildlife to show itself. It did not disappoint with red deer, a hunting buzzard, treecreepers and woodpeckers all making an appearance.
The Costal Carriage- Aberdeenshire: The Coastal Carriage is a 100-year-old railway carriage which was rescued by its current owners from a field where it had sat for a decade, storing chicken feed. Set in rolling farmland on a working farm, this hut has a charming vintage interior with a box bed and a mini bunk bed for small children. It has an ingenious separate compartment made from a giant cable reel, which houses an authentic bush shower you can fill from heating water on the woodburner or gas stove. Sitting out front in the evening, you find yourself staring out into the North Sea.
And what’s next? In the glen between our village and the next hamlet, on a wind-buffeted hillside, sits a ruin. It’s an old hill farm, rusty plough still sitting outside. We are currently debating whether to sell our small home in the process of trying to buy it and move ourselves and our growing family into an off-grid caravan while we renovate it on a tiny budget. And yes, it would be off-grid, but with the modern additions of solar panels and a ground source heat pump. We’ll see if this dream comes to fruition but until then, you’ll likely find us in a hut in the middle of a glen questioning modern life and desperately trying to ignore our phones.
Want to see more Scottish escapes? Follow our travels and book progress on Instagram: @chasing_cabins_travel
