When we walked around Loch Muick on Monday, we took Ed to visit the bothy (maintained by the Mountain Bothies Association) at the back of Glas-Allt-Shiel (owned by Balmoral Estate, and formerly Queen Victoria's 'widow's house' where she could escape to after Albert's death).
The bothy is cute, but dingy, and is situated at the back of the main house. Inside there were three people, chatting and warming themselves by the fireside. We had a chat with them and a little look around. We learned that one of them was called Ilonka, and that she was the author of a little message we'd noticed, on the track up, written in the snow.
Whilst we were there, Alex picked up a 'resident' guitar and gave us a little song!
A fun story about the main house is that apparently Zara Philipps had her 21st birthday party there, and Princess Anne came in past in the morning to make bacon butties for all the party goers!
Have a great celebration tonight, and see you on the other side.
Happy New Year Issi!