Inshriach bothy photo by Johnny Barrington

TBP was initiated in 2009 by artists Bobby Niven and Will Foster. In 2011 TBP, now Bobby Niven and architectural designer Iain MacLeod, realised the first art residency bothy thanks to support from the RSA Residencies for Scotland programme. The bothy was part fabricated during the RSA residency at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and then transported to Inshriach Estate near Aviemore where the build was completed in a traditional Scottish woodland area in the Cairngorm National Park.

TBP is committed to using sustainable materials and natural building techniques to create simple, modern designs. They work in collaboration with visual artists, musicians and writers to design small-scale dwellings and experiment with solutions for renewable energy systems and the challenges of living off-the-grid.

157 Days of Sunshine, The Walled Garden mural by Nicolas Party, photo by Patrick Jameson

The network currently consists of three bothies: Inshriach Bothy in the Cairngorm National Park built in 2012, Sweeney’s Bothy being built this year on the Isle of Eigg and the Walled Garden Bothy in Glasgow. You can follow progress of Sweeney’s Bothy, a modest zero-carbon dwelling, on the Isle of Eigg, off the West coast of Scotland here. The Walled Garden currently hosts an ongoing exhibition, 157 Days of Sunshine with work by Nicolas Party, Laura Aldridge & Kathryn Elkin, Bobby Niven, Michael Stumpf and Guillaume Gattier which will run until the end of September 2013 with new artists adding work to the exhibition and organising events and performances throughout the summer. The Walled Garden is a Bothy Project events space, based in a vacant site that was formerly the Glasgow City Council Cleansing Department. It is located between the Glue Factory and Scottish Opera at the dead end where the stairs lead to the canal (27 Sawmillfield Street, Glasgow).

There are a few events happening this weekend with the main one being the Sweeney’s Bothy launch at the Walled Garden on Saturday 15 June. See here for more.

TBP are always looking to expand their network with new sites and new commissions. See here for more information on how to get involved.

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